Experimental characterization of;magnetic anisotropy, coercive field, and anisotropy dispersion of sputtered Fe/CoNbZr and Fe/Ag/CoNbZr sandwiches were carried out by transverse biased initial susceptibility (TBIS) measurements with a magneto-optic Kerr effect at both film/air and glass/film interfaces. Three different behaviors have been observed depending on the range of magnetization fluctuation. The results indicate that Fe grains play a fundamental role in the type of the dispersion (long range or short range). The results obtained from the coercive field and from x-ray diffractograms agree with those obtained by TBIS. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.