The magnetic and structural properties of metallic and nitride-doped (Co/sub 90/Fe/sub 10//Cu) multilayers

Co/sub 90/Fe/sub 10/(2.5 nm)/Cu (2 nm, 3 nm, or 4 nm) multilayers (MLs) were DC magnetron-sputtered in the presence of a trace N/sub 2/ sputtering gas constituent during CoFe layer growth. A reduction in saturation magnetization and easy axis coercivity coupled with an increase in resistivity was observed for the nitrided MLs compared to metallic MLs with identical Cu layer thickness.