INTERFACE ANALYSIS OF (110)-ORIENTED CO PT SUPERLATTICES WITH LARGE MAGNETIC ANISOTROPIES USING X-RAY-DIFFRACTION/

We report on studies of the profiles of the strain field components in epitaxially grown (110)-oriented Co/Pt superlattices with fixed Pt la yer thickness (nominally 18 angstrom) and varying Co layer thickness. The strain profiles in the growth direction as well as fluctuations in lattice parameters at the interfaces are obtained using a parameter r efinement method for the quantitative analysis of high angle THETA-2TH ETA x-ray diffraction scans. We find that all strain components origin ate only from the Co-Pt interfaces. Off-axial x-ray scattering measure ments provide for the in-plane strain components, which are found to i ncrease with increasing Co layer thickness. From the obtained strain f ields the in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy contributions caused b y magnetoelastic interactions are calculated, which agree well with ex perimentally observed values.