Effect of annealing on microstructure of Ni80Fe20/Cu multilayers

[Ni80Fe20/Cu](15) multilayers were fabricated by dc-magnetron sputtering an d annealed at 150, 250 and 350 degrees C, respectively. The structures were investigated by low-angle and high-angle X-ray diffraction. It was found t hat, as the annealing temperature increases, the [111] preferred orientatio n of superlattices is improved slightly, while the superlattice period, int erplane distance, average multilayer coherence length decrease. The interfa cial roughness increases with the increase of annealing temperature and/or annealing time, this can be attributed to the interfacial interdiffusion. A significantly intermixing layer located in the interlayer region between t he Ni80Fe20 and Cu sublayers has been revealed by simulation of high-angle X-ray diffraction, and its thickness increases as the annealing temperature or annealing time increases. The simulation results furthermore showed tha t the interplane distances of the Ni80Fe20 layer keeps constant, and that t he Cu layer decreases slightly as the annealing temperature increases.