ION-ASSISTED DEPOSITION OF AG(011) FE(001) MULTILAYERS - INTERFACE ROUGHNESS/

We report on the mouth and structure of Ag/Fe superlattices grown on M gO(001) substrates studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Ion-assisted deposition (LAD) was used to modify th e multilayer interfaces during the growth process. The structure chara cterization was performed using symmetric and asymmetric XRD technique s. The Ag(001)[100]//Fe(001)[110]//MgO(001)[100] growth was obtained u sing an ion-beam sputtering technique. The XRD results were interprete d using the model of nonideal superlattice structure based on a Monte- CarIo simulation. The surface roughness was characterized using AFM. T he decrease of the r.m.s. roughness for the samples grown in IAD mode in comparison with samples grown without ion assistance was evidenced. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.