ORIENTATIONAL AND STRUCTURAL DEPENDENCE OF MAGNETIC-ANISOTROPY OF CU NI/CU SANDWICHES - MISFIT INTERFACE ANISOTROPY/

Magnetic anisotropies and misfit strain relaxations have been investig ated in Cu/Ni-wedge/Cu (100) and (111) sandwiches deposited by molecul ar beam epitaxy on single-crystal Cu substrates. Our results reveal a clear distinction in the nature of the measured anisotropy at Ni thick nesses below and above the critical value t(c), where the growth becom es incoherent. Below t(c), coherent lattice strain modifies only the v olume anisotropy, while interface anisotropy is Neel type; above t(c), magnetoelastic effects are found to contribute to the interface aniso tropy.