Thin layers of magnetic metals (Fe, Ni and Mn) and its alloys (for e.g., Fe_xNi_1-x) have been interfaced with semiconductor (silicon) and irradiated from swift (~ 100 MeV) heavy ions for investigating interfacial modifications. It has been found that the irradiation causes an interfacial intermixing due to the electronic energy loss of the swift heavy ions in the near surface/interfacial region. The intermixing results in nanogranular magnetic phase of silicide to bridge the interface to make it intimate with a magnetic coupling for a favorable magneto electronic transport across the interface.

The structures have been characterized from AFM, XRD, I-V, I-V in H, M-H, MFM and PES studies. Electronic transport has shown a significant increase of current flow by one to two orders of magnitude in the irradiated structures. The magneto-transport measurement has shown the emergence of a GMR effect. The magnetization behaviour shows the superparamagnetic features of nanogranular phase. The study shows the significance of ion beam irradiation for tailoring the magnetic interface for a favorable electronic magneto-transport for Spintronics.