Orientational dependence of the interface magnetic anisotropy in epitaxial Ni/Co/Ni sandwiches

Magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements have been used to investigate the orientational dependence of the magnetic anisotropy in ultrathin Ni/Co-wedge/Ni sandwiches deposited by molecular beam epitaxy on single-crystal Cu substrates. The results show a marked dependence of both the volume and interface anisotropy terms on the growth direction of the samples: [100], [110], and [111]. In addition, the (111) interface term was found to be significantly larger than existing literature values for Co/Ni multilayers. This effect is discussed in terms of the microstructure of the studied films.