Gd/Fe magnetic multilayer films grown on GaAs (0 0 1) by means of a molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) method are investigated. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images show that there are stripes indicating epitaxial growth in the Fe layers located at the most distant and up to the third closest to the GaAs buffer layer. In case when the Gd layer thickness is more than 20 nm, the magnetization versus temperature curves show a drastic reduction of the magnetization with increasing temperature due to a parallel alignment between the Fe and Gd moments. When the Gd layer is thinner, a superparamagnetic state of Gd seems to exist. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.