Analysis of interfacial magnetic anisotropy in Co/Pt and Co/Pd multilayer films

Analysis of Co/Pt and Co/Pd multilayer films was performed to investigate the dependence of interfacial magnetic anisotropy (IMA) and induced magnetization on the thickness of the laminated Pd or Pt layers. For the Co/Pd films, the IMA energy increased as the thickness of the laminated Pd layer was increased up to similar to 0.8 nm and depended proportionally on the amount of the induced magnetization. This suggests that the whole magnetic moment induced in a few Pd atomic layers contributed to the IMA. In contrast, for the Co/Pt films, this proportional relationship only held when the thickness of the Pt layer was less than similar to 0.2 nm. Since one Pt monolayer is 0.225 mn thick, the amount of the IMA energy in the Co/Pt films is proportional to the number of Pt-Co atomic contacts. This difference between Co/Pt and Co/Pd multilayer films is attributed to the difference in the latent ferromagnetism between Pt and Pd. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.