Molecular-beam-epitaxial growth and magnetic properties of (111)Pt/Co/Ag, Pt/Co, and Ag/Co/Pt superlattices

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Abstract
The structural and the magnetic properties of (111)Pt/Co/Ag, Pt/Co, and Ag/Co/Pt superlattices (SLs) were studied. The samples were grown at 373 K on Ag buffer layers preformed on 7×7-(111)Si substrates by molecular-beam epitaxy. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction indicated that in-plane lattice constants of Co, Pt, and Ag layers changed continuously during layer growth in Pt/Co/Ag SLs with thin Co layers and Pt/Co SLs. The effective magnetic anisotropy energy Keff of a Pt/Co/Ag SL was similar to K̄eff, an average of Keff values of a Pt/Co and an Ag/Co SL with the same Co layer thicknesses. This suggests that the origins of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in the Pt/Co system are different from those in the Au/Co system investigated earlier, in which the difference between the Au/Co and Au/Co/Ag SLs is small in Keff value.