Controllable two- and three-state magnetization switching in single-layer epitaxial Pd 1- x Fe x films and an epitaxial Pd 0.92 Fe 0.08 /Ag/Pd 0.96 Fe 0.04 heterostructure.

We have investigated the low-temperature magnetoresistive properties of a thin epitaxial Pd 0.92 Fe 0.08 film at different directions of the current and the applied magnetic field. The obtained experimental results are well described within an assumption of a single-domain magnetic state of the film. In a wide range of the appled field directions, the magnetization reversal proceeds in two steps via the intermediate easy axis. An epitaxial heterostructure of two magnetically separated ferromagnetic layers, Pd 0.92 Fe 0.08 /Ag/Pd 0.96 Fe 0.04 , was synthesized and studied with dc magnetometry. Its magnetic configuration diagram has been constructed and the conditions have been determined for a controllable switching between stable parallel, orthogonal, and antiparallel arrangements of magnetic moments of the layers.