Magnetic quantum structures and magnetic multilayers have been intensively investigated within the last years because they offer unique properties of a large-scale integration devices. Such properties can bo of practical importance (echange interlayer magnetic coupling, giant magnetoresistance etc.) leading to applications in spintronics like, e.g., spin injectors, valves or filters.
The efficiency of given device strongly depends on the crystal quality of layers involved in the structure, on the properties of interfaces, and on the character of magnetic structures at the surface and inside the layers. The chemical quality of the interface (like, e.g., its roughness or a range of diffusion of constituent elements) can be determined by X-ray reflectometry. In the case of magnetic structures, an important point is to characterize the "magnetic" quality of the interface and lateral distribution of magnetization which requires an application of the neutron scattering techniques.
The goal of our work was to present a selected example of application of the area detector in the neutron scattering studies.
The quality of interfaces for Fe/FeN multilayers (deposited in UHV sputtering system and checked by X-ray reflectometry at the Institute of Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw) was characterized by the spin-polarized neutron reflectometry. Neutron scattering studies were performed at Laboratoire Leon Brillouin in Saclay (France) using two-dimensional neutron detector developed recently in this laboratory. Obtained results are shown and discussed.