Interlayer exchange coupling in transition metal multilayers has been intensively studied for more than three decades and is incorporated into almost all spintronic devices. With the current spacer layers, only collinear magnetic alignment can be reliably achieved; however, controlling the coupling angle has the potential to markedly expand the use of interlayer exchange coupling. Here, we show that the coupling angle between the magnetic moments of two ferromagnetic layers can be precisely controlled by inserting a specially designed magnetic metallic spacer layer between them. The coupling angle is controlled solely by the composition of the spacer layer. Moreover, the biquadratic coupling strength, responsible for noncollinear alignment, is larger than that of current materials. These properties allow for the fabrication and study of not yet realized magnetic structures that have the potential to improve existing spintronic devices.

过渡金属多层中的层间交换耦合已经进行了三十多年的深入研究，并已被纳入几乎所有自旋电子器件中。使用电流隔离层，只能可靠地实现共线磁对准；但是，控制耦合角有可能显着扩展层间交换耦合的使用。在这里，我们表明，可以通过在两个铁磁层之间插入专门设计的磁性金属隔离层来精确控制两个铁磁层之间的耦合角。耦合角仅由间隔层的组成来控制。而且，负责非共线对准的双二次耦合强度大于当前材料的双二次耦合强度。