A CROSS-SECTIONAL HIGH-RESOLUTION TRANSMISSION ELECTRON-MICROSCOPY STUDY OF ELECTRODEPOSITED NI-CU CU MULTILAYERS/

This work is an extension of our previous structural study performed b y conventional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) on electrodeposi ted Ni-Cu/Cu multilayers exhibiting giant magnetoresistance (GMR). It could be established from the present atomic-resolution structural stu dies that (i) the layered structure found by conventional TEM to be fl at and smooth shows an interface roughness spread over a few atomic mo nolayers; (ii) the atomic planes cross, in most cases, continuously th e Ni-Cu/Cu interface, i,e., forming a coherent superlattice; (iii) the atomic planes exhibit a periodic distortion due to the unrelaxed stra in induced by the lattice mismatch between the magnetic and non-magnet ic constituent layers. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.