Growth, Structure and magnetism of Cobalt-Platinum Ultrathin Films and Sandwiches

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Abstract
Cobalt-platinum alloys and multilayers are now well known for their potentialities in Magneto-optical recording Media. The growth of ultrathin layers and sandwiches is thought to be useful to find the relationship between the structural and magnetic properties at an atomic level. Low Energy Electron Diffraction (LEED) and Auger spectroscopy (AES) are used here to study the crystallography and the growth modes of Pt on Co (0001) surfaces. Co/Pt/Co sandwiches are also built and investigated by the same Methods. At room temperature we show the evidence of a good epitaxy of platinum on the Co (0001) surface leading to the possibility of obtaining ordered Co/Pt/Co sandwiches. Annealings at moderate temperatures lead to an epitaxial alloy formation. Auger results show that alloying indeed induces a magnetic moment on platinum atoms. This could explain the magnetic properties already observed in CO/Pt (111) Multilayers.