Surfactant-Mediated Modification of the Magnetic Properties of Co<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>/</mml:mi></mml:math>Cu(111) Thin Films and Superlattices

Abstract

Deposition of Pb on Cu(111) prior to the growth of Co/Cu superlattices changes the magnetic properties of the latter. The use of a surfactant induces layer-by-layer growth of Co and delays the fcc to hcp structural transition. As a consequence, the easy axis of magnetization remains perpendicular to the plane for Co/Cu films grown with Pb. On the other hand, the elimination of twinning in the Cu spacers grown with surfactants allows the observation of complete antiferromagnetic coupling in Co/Cu superlattices for both in-plane and out-of-plane magnetization.