Effect of Ag as a surfactant on the thermal stability in Cu/Co multilayers

In the present work we studied the effect of Ag as a surfactant in Cu/Co multilayers prepared by ion beam sputtering. Two identical samples of Cu/Co multilayers with 0.2 nm Ag on a Cu buffer layer and without this Ag layer were deposited on Si substrates. It is known that Cu has a lower free energy than Co, and therefore, the Cu/Co interfaces are not symmetric. Addition of Ag alters the kinetics and thermodynamics of the growth and triggers the layer by layer growth as Ag floats on the growing front balancing the surface free energy of Cu and Co. It was found that with addition of Ag surfactant the thermal stability of Cu/Co multilayer improves.