Specular and off-specular x-ray reflectivity study of ion irradiated Co/Pt multilayers

Co/Pt thin film superlattices with strong perpendicular anisotropy and out-of-plane coercivities of 5-11 kOe were irradiated with Xe+ ions to tailor their magnetic properties. Specular and off-specular x-ray reflectivity (XRR) studies were performed to correlate the irradiation-induced coercivity reduction with changes of the interfacial properties. Off-specular XRR turned out to be particularly sensitive to the Co/Pt superlattice period. By applying the distorted wave Born approximation to simulate the diffusely scattered intensity, we were able to quantify the vertical roughness correlation throughout the superlattice stack. Study of a Co/Pt multilayer exposed to different Xe+ ion doses suggests that progressive ion bombardment causes a gradual loss of conformality between the different interfaces and a change of the interface morphology, whereas initial vertical RMS roughness values are not affected. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.