Structure and magnetic properties of Co(Zr, B)/Cu multilayers

Sputtered Co, CoB and CoZrB alloys in thin-film and multilayer form have been prepared using Cu as a spacer. All of the multilayers show a weak contribution to the magnetic anisotropy from the interface which favors perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and a strong contribution from the bulk which favors in-plane anisotropy. All the multilayers also show a stronger coercivity perpendicular to the film than in the plane of the film. The coercivity perpendicular to the film shows a dependence on magnetic layer thickness with the coercivity decreasing with decreasing thickness and this is discussed in terms of the magnetic domain size which is restricted by the magnetic layer thickness. CoZrB/Cu multilayers show the smallest coercivity of the above multilayer systems.