EVIDENCE OF EPITAXIAL COBALT ON PLATINUM (100) SURFACES

The investigation of the initial stages of growth of cobalt on Pt(100) has been undertaken to test the possibilities of obtaining modulated metallic magnetic multilayers having new interesting magnetic properties. Using surface physics methods like LEED, Auger and photoemission (synchrotron radiation), we established the growth mode to find that at room temperature no epitaxy occurs between the layers even if the growth is homogeneous. As far as magnetism is concerned, we evidenced an induced magnetic Pt state at the interface. Annealing the cobalt films in the temperature range 200-410-degrees-C leads to order the interface and bring up fcc LEED and RHEED patterns related to an epitaxial alloy overlayer.