The effect of Pd layer thickness on the magnetic and magneto-optical properties of Pd/(Pt/Co/Pt) modulated multilayers

A series of Pd-t/sub Pd//(Pt-2 /spl Aring//Co-3 /spl Aring//Pt-2 /spl Aring/) modulated multilayer films with Pd layer thickness t/sub Pd/ ranging from 3 to 12 /spl Aring/ have been deposited on oxidized Si substrates. SQUID magnetic and Kerr hysteresis measurements reveal that large magnetic moment and Kerr rotation is achieved in the multilayers with Pd layer thicknesses less than 6 /spl Aring/. This result, and X-ray diffraction data, suggest that the Pd layer thickness strongly affects the magnitude of the induced magnetic moment and Kerr rotation as well as the sharpness of the interfaces of Pd/(Pt/Co/Pt) multilayers. A Kerr rotation of 0.3/spl deg/ is observed near 400 nm in the multilayer film with t/sub Pd/ of 6 /spl Aring/. The multilayers with t/sub Pd/ of 6 to 12 /spl Aring/ exhibit perpendicular magnetic anisotropy energies.