This paper presents the results of investigation of magnetic properties in Cu/Ni multilayer systems. Based on the investigation of Ni/Cu and Cu/Ni systems with different thickness of magnetic and non-magnetic layers it was proved that the presence of ferromagnetic (F-F) and anti ferromagnetic (A-F) exchange couplings depends on the quality of layers in artificial superlattice and on the state and type of free surface, superlattice structure and its roughness.