Room-temperature perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in Ni/Pd (111) multilayers

We report the experimental observation of room-temperature perpendicular ma gnetic anisotropy (PMA) in Ni/Pd (111) multilayer films having the thicknes s range of 5-11 Angstrom Ni and 4-11 Angstrom Pd sublayers, prepared by dir ect current magnetron sputtering on glass substrates at Ar sputtering press ure of 7 mTorr. Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy was found to be sensitive ly dependent on both Ni- and Pd-sublayer thicknesses, and a maximum anisotr opy energy of 5.6 x 10(5) erg/cm(3) was obtained for the (5 Angstrom Ni/6 A ngstrom Pd)(30) multilayer. The magnetoelastic anisotropy, quantitatively d etermined from in situ stress and ex situ magnetostriction coefficient meas urements, was found to play an important role for the observed PMA in this system, together with the surface anisotropy. (C) 1999 American Institute o f Physics. [S0003-6951(99)03946-7].