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Grazing incidence X‐ray scattering from epitaxial Fe/Au multilayers
Author(s) -
Rozatian A. S. H.,
Hase T. P. A.,
Tanner B. K.,
Ryan P. A.,
Dekadjevi D. T.,
Hickey B. J.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.200675694
Subject(s) - scattering , specular reflection , bilayer , condensed matter physics , anisotropy , materials science , surface finish , superlattice , surface roughness , x ray reflectivity , optics , thin film , chemistry , physics , composite material , nanotechnology , biochemistry , membrane
The layer structure of a series of Fe/Au multilayers has been studied by grazing incidence specular and diffuse X‐ray scattering. In particular, the evolution of the layer and interface characteristics has been followed as a function of the number of bilayers grown. Torque magnetometry measurements showed that the easy axis of magnetization of all samples lay in the film plane, the effective anisotropy constant per unit volume remaining constant as the bilayer number increased. These data contrast with previous studies showing that Fe/Au multilayers exhibited perpendicular anisotropy when the Fe layer is thinner than 10 Å. Fitting of model structures to the grazing incidence specular and diffuse X‐ray scattering data showed that the r.m.s. roughness was high, being between 10 and 20 Å for different samples within the series. There was no systematic trend in the amplitude as a function of bilayer repeat number but the in‐plane length scale of the roughness increased with layer thickness. The fractal parameter h fell linearly with bilayer repeat number. We suggest that the high level of roughness results in the in‐plane anisotropy in these layers. A superlattice sample with 100 bilayers displayed a significantly lower roughness of 8 (±0.3) Å and perpendicular anisotropy. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)