Structural and magnetic properties of Co2MnSn films and Co2MnSn/Cr multilayers

Thin films of Co2MnSn were prepared on MgO(0 0 1) substrates with a Cr-buffer layer from three elemental targets by ultrahigh-vacuum alternate deposition. These films showed good crystallinity, and the epitaxial relations were found to be MgO(0 0 1)//Cr(0 0 1)//Co2MnSn(0 0 1) and MgO[1 0 0]//Cr[1 1 0]//Co2MnSn[1 1 0]. [Co2MnSn(2.2 nm)/Cr(0.9 nm)]10 multilayers were also prepared with high crystallographic quality. The magnetic properties of Co2MnSn films were studied by magnetization measurements and 119Sn Mössbauer spectroscopy. Hyperfine fields observed by Mössbauer effect measurements showed that the degree of short range order around Sn in the samples grown at 200∘C was as good as that in bulk samples.