INSITU MEASUREMENT OF STRESS IN CO-CU, CO-PD, AND CO-AU COMPOSITIONALLY MODULATED MULTILAYER FILMS

Temporal changes of sign and magnitude of the intrinsic stress during ultra-high vacuum deposition of Co/Cu, Co/Pd, and Co/Au compositionally modulated multilayer films (CMF's) were investigated by means of a cantilever technique. The intrinsic stress corresponding to monatomic layers could be detected during deposition. The intrinsic stress in Co layers deposited on Cu, Pd, and Au layers is tensile and the stress of Cu, Pd, and Au layers on Co is compressive. The intrinsic stress of a Co layer on Cu in Co/Cu CMF approaches near to the ideal critical shear stress of the perfect crystal, 1×10 11 dyn/cm2.