Magnetoelastic properties of epitaxially grown Co35Pd65 alloy films on Cu/Si(001)

Abstract

Growth stress, magnetoelastic coupling, and growth structure of epitaxially grown Co35Pd65 alloy films on Cu/Si(001) are investigated in the monolayers regime via submonolayer sensitivity stress/magnetoelastic coupling measurements system and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). In situ stress and STM study revealed that the formation of three-dimensional (3D) islands is a dominating stress relaxation mechanism in Co35Pd65 alloy films. The magnetoelastic coupling of Co35Pd65 alloy films, determined from the curvatures of a substrate, was found to be sensitively dependent on the alloy thickness in the thickness range of 2-10 ML: it is increased from 0.72x10(7) to 3.31x10(7) J/m(3) with increasing Co35Pd65 layer thickness. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.