STUDY OF MULTILAYER SUBSTRATE SURFACE-ROUGHNESS USING RBS WITH IMPROVED DEPTH RESOLUTION

In magnetic superlattices the thickness of the layers and their interf ace structure are determinant for the magnetic properties. However, th e 5 nm depth resolution normally achieved with the RBS technique is no t enough to allow the study of these systems. In this paper, depth res olutions down to 1.2 nm, recently achieved in RBS measurements of Co/R e superlattices using grazing angle of incidence, are compared to comp uter simulations, and good agreement is found. The effect of the subst rate surface roughness is taken into account using a simple phenomenol ogical model. A way to further improve the depth resolution is also di scussed.