Effects of Ag Buffer and Pt Intermediate Layers on Magnetic Properties of Epitaxial Co/Pt Multilayers

Abstract—Co/Pt multilayers were prepared on silicon substrates with a Ag buffer of different thickness and Pt intermediate layers by using the molecular-beam epitaxial technique. The as-deposited films (at 160 C) were then post-annealed for 30 min in a vacuum at a temperature ( an) ranging from 260 C to 500 C. The for-mation of CoPt 1 0-ordered structure were observed for all the samples grown at 160 C. The out-of-plane coercivity ( ) and saturation magnetization ( ) of all Co/Pt multilayer films de-creased monotonically as elevating annealing temperature, owing to the heavy diffusion of Si into Co/Pt films at higher temperatures. When an reaches 500 C, the formation of PtSi phase destroys the magnetic properties. Index Terms—Buffer layer, Co/Pt alloy, multilayer deposition, ordering temperature, Si interdiffusion. I