Structural and spectroscopic magneto-optic studies of Pt-Ni multilayers

Pt-m-Ni-n multilayers were grown by e-beam evaporation under ultrahigh vacuum; lit and n will depict the number of atomic planes of the corresponding constituents in one modulation period and, in this work, they were varied between 1 and 14. X-ray diffraction and conventional electron microscopy experiments revealed a fee polycrystalline structure with excellent modulation. Magneto-optic properties, studied at room temperature between 1.5 and 5.2 eV, were found to depend strongly on both m and n. Perpendicular anisotropy was exhibited for samples with thin Ni layers and, unexpectedly, for thicker Ni layers when Pt layers became considerably thin (m similar to 2). Comparison of the magneto-optic features of two similar samples grown on glass and polyimide revealed that the choice between glass and polyimide does not affect magneto-optic properties. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.