ANISOTROPY AND MAGNETOOPTICAL STUDIES IN EVAPORATED CO/PT MULTILAYER

Co/Pt multilayer films have been prepared by evaporation under UHV conditions and their magnetic and magneto-optical properties studied. For samples with Co layer thiokness below about 1 nm reotangular loops are observed with Hc on the order of 1 kOe. For these samples the uniaxial anisotropy is as high as lx×l07erg.cm-3and it depends on the relative thicknesses of both Pt and Co. While the polar Kerr rotation decreases with decreasing Co layer thickness, the Faraday rotation, on the contrary, is seen to increase strongly. This increase has been attributed to the presence of Co-Pt alloy layer formed by mixing at the interfaces and whose thickness has been estimated to be about 0.3 nm. Faraday rotation study is hence a useful tool to characterize the multilayers. It is suggested that this layer plays an important role in the origin of Ku. It has been found that M and Ku are practically independent of temperature for 5<T<300K. The Tcis well above 600K. © 1990 IEEE