INTERFACE ANISOTROPY AND CHEMISTRY OF MAGNETIC MULTILAYERS - AU/CO, PT/CO AND PD/CO

Interfaces of ion beam sputtered Au/Co, Pt/Co and Pd/Co multilayers have been investigated with respect to a large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Special attention has been paid to a precise determination of individual layer thicknesses, which can be extracted from multiple diffraction satellite peaks in X-ray diffraction to within +/- 2%. For the first time in situ photoelectron diffraction experiments on thin bilayers of almost-equal-to 1.0 nm Co on Au, Pt and Pd are presented which provide strong evidence for back-diffusion earlier proposed by Den Broeder et al. in Au/Co and interdiffusion of Pt/Co and Pd/Co in annealing experiments at T(a) = 300-degrees-C. Resistivity measurements in the range 20-degrees-C less-than-or-equal-to T(a) less-than-or-equal-to 300-degrees-C support the above interpretation.