Magnetic anisotropy in epitaxial Cu/Ni/Cu/Si(111) ultrathin films studied by magneto-optical Kerr effect and Brillouin spectroscopy

Epitaxial ultrathin Cu/Ni/Cu films with Ni thickness of 3 and 6 nm, have been grown by UHV evaporation on the Si(1 1 1)-7 x 7 surface. Magneto-optical Kerr-effect measurements have shown that the preferential direction of magnetization lies in the film plane for both films. Brillouin light scattering was then exploited to study the spin-wave dispersion as a function of both the applied magnetic field and the wave vector direction. This enabled us to determine, in addition to the other magnetic parameters, both the in-plane and the out-of-plane anisotropy constants. This is the first Brillouin scattering investigation of magnetic anisotropy in Ni films. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.