OPTICAL AND MAGNETOOPTICAL PROPERTIES OF FE CU MULTILAYERED FILMS - INFLUENCE OF THE MODULATION PERIOD AND THE BCC-FCC PHASE-TRANSITION IN IRON/

The optical and magneto-optical properties of multilayered film sample s of the Fe/Cu system prepared by high-frequency sputtering on an Si(1 00) substrate are studied by ellipsometry and by measuring the equator ial Kerr effect (the delta(p) effect) in the spectral range 0.25-7 mu m. The optical characteristics, the plasma frequency omega(p) and the relaxation frequency gamma(0) of the conduction electrons, and the del ta(p) effect are found as functions of the modulation period D=12.5-10 0 Angstrom. Anomalous behavior of the optical and magneto-optical char acteristics is discovered in short-period Fe/Cu structures, The result s are discussed within a phenomenological theory of optical and magnet o-optical properties for layered structures. Several factors, such as the indirect exchange interaction between the iron layers, the presenc e of a transition layer on the internal boundaries, the possible ''mag netizing'' of copper, and the formation of an fee iron phase in the th in layers, are taken into account in the analysis of the experimental data. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.