Magnetic behavior affected by structural properties in sputtered Co/Cu multilayers: Effect of total thickness and deposition rate

Abstract

Co/Cu multilayer films were produced by the sputtering technique in two series: by changing the total thickness, and by considering different deposition rates of the Co layer. The surface roughness increased with an increase in the total film thickness, and the increase in the coercivity (H c) value was associated with this increase in surface roughness. As the deposition rate of the Co layer increased, the intensity of the peak belonging to the (111) plane of the face-centered cubic structure of Cu and the crystallite sizes decreased. With an increase in the deposition rate, the Co atomic content gradually increased, the M s value increased accordingly, and the H c value decreased. In addition, the film surfaces became smoother, and a slight decrease in the size of the grains on the surface was observed with an increase in the deposition rate of the Co layer. The structural and magnetic properties of the Co/Cu films were affected by the different total thicknesses of the films and the change in the deposition rate of the Co layer. This study contributes to the lack of studies on the magneto-structural properties of DC sputtered Co/Cu multilayers. This allows the magnetic properties to be tuned for specific applications using Co/Cu films.