Perpendicular magnetic behavior of ultra-thin Co sandwiches
- Arizona Univ., Tucson, AZ (United States)
- Institut D`Optique, Orsay, (France)
We have used in situ polar Kerr effect measurements to study the magnetic properties of MBE-grown X/Co/Y trilayers, where X and Y are combinations of the non-magnetic metals Au, Cu or Pd. Polar hysteresis curves were measured in situ for systematically-varied Co and overlayer Y layer thicknesses 2 {Angstrom} {le} T{sub co} {le} 20 {Angstrom} and 0 {Angstrom} {le} t{sub Y} {le} 100 {Angstrom}. We recently reported that for base layers of Pd or Au that induce a large perpendicular anisotropy, the magnitude of the X/Co/Y perpendicular coercivity is strongly peaked at {approximately}1 atomic layer overlayer coverage. However, in the case of Pd overlayers the peak in coercivity is much less pronounced than for the other materials. Here we report further measurements on Pd overlayers confirming the existence of a small peak in coercivity. In addition, we have performed measurements on a ``reversed`` layered Cu/Co/Au sandwich where the Cu base layer induces only a weak perpendicular anisotropy. We find similar peaked behavior in the perpendicular coercivity as in our earlier measurements on Au/Co/Cu.
- Research Organization:
- Arizona Univ., Tucson, AZ (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG03-93ER45488
- OSTI ID:
- 64972
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/ER/45488--4; CONF-940829--3; ON: DE95010611
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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