Epitaxial strain and interface effects on the magnetoelastic behaviour of Dy/Ho and Dy/Lu superlattices

Abstract The basal plane magnetoelastic stress, B γ ,2 , of Dy 16 /Ho 22 , Dy 14 /Lu 30 and Dy 21 /Lu 11 (0 0 0 1) superlattices is investigated. For Dy 16 /Ho 22 we obtain B γ ,2 (12 T, 0 K)=0.4 GPa, while for Dy 14 /Lu 30 and Dy 21 /Lu 11 it amounts 0.33 and 0.9 GPa, respectively. In the first case, the value obtained is explained in terms of the known values of B γ ,2 for bulk Dy and Ho, including small interface and strain contributions, whereas in the Dy/Lu samples, B γ ,2 have large non-bulk contributions. The differences in epitaxial compression and in electronic structure for both kind of superlattices can explain these results.