Temperature and thickness dependence of coercivity and magnetization of Co/Cu and Co/Si multilayers

Authors

S. Nafis, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
John A. Woollam, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Z.S. Shan, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
David J. Sellmyer, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

November 1991

Comments

Published by American Institute of Physics. J. Applied Physics 70, 6050 (1991). ©1991 American Institute of Physics. Permission to use. http://jap.aip.org/jap/.

Abstract

Co/Cu and Co/Si multilayers of total thickness ~3000 Å were prepared by rf and dc magnetron sputtering. The nominal thicknesses of the individual layers were in the range of 4 to 100 Å. A large coercivity (H_c) at 10 K was observed for very thin layers of Co in Co/Cu samples, and it decreased with increase of the Co layer thickness. For very thin layers of Co in Co/Cu samples, the layer behaved superparamagnetically. Similar behavior was not to be observed in Co/Si samples. With increased substrate temperature (T_s) during deposition, H_c was also observed to increase (decrease) for Co/Cu (Co/Si) samples. Magnetization data were modeled to determine the diffusion layer thicknesses. Journal of Applied Physics is copyrighted by The American Institute of Physics.