Room-temperature perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in Ni/Pd (111) multilayers

Abstract

We report the experimental observation of room-temperature perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) in Ni/Pd (111) multilayer films having the thickness range of 5-11 Angstrom Ni and 4-11 Angstrom Pd sublayers, prepared by direct current magnetron sputtering on glass substrates at Ar sputtering pressure of 7 mTorr. Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy was found to be sensitively dependent on both Ni- and Pd-sublayer thicknesses, and a maximum anisotropy energy of 5.6 x 10(5) erg/cm(3) was obtained for the (5 Angstrom Ni/6 Angstrom Pd)(30) multilayer. The magnetoelastic anisotropy, quantitatively determined from in situ stress and ex situ magnetostriction coefficient measurements, was found to play an important role for the observed PMA in this system, together with the surface anisotropy. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)03946-7].