Structural and magnetic properties of Fe/Ni multilayers

In the present work interfacial and microstructural properties of Fe/Ni multilayers having different thickness of constituent layers, were studied using grazing incidence X-ray diffraction and reflectivity techniques. The chemical nature of the interfaces involved was investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy depth profiling. It has been found that microstructural properties show a variation with a changed bilayers structure. ne correlation between the microstructural and magnetic properties reveals that a different nature of magnetostriction and crystal structure is mainly responsible for the observed magnetization behavior in Fe/Ni multilayers having different thickness ratio of Fe and Ni. (C) 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.