THE INFLUENCE OF INTERFACES ON MAGNETIC THIN-FILMS AND MULTILAYERS

One to nine monolayer Co films on Cu(100) and one- to five-layer-thick Co/Cu/Co trilayers on Cu(100) were fabricated at room temperature using metal vapour-phase expitaxy techniques under ultrahigh-vacuum conditions. Using electron diffraction and Auger electron spectroscopy, we determined that the single layers and multilayer films grow epitaxially and predominantly in a layer-by-layer growth mode. Longitudinal and polar magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE) measurements established that the easy axis of magnetization is in the substrate plane and provided the change of total magnetization with layer and multilayer thickness. Our data suggest that the interface magnetization is affected by the thickness of the top Co layer.