Effect of Composition and Thickness on the Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy of (Co/Pd) Multilayers

Magnetic materials with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) have wide-ranging applications in magnetic recording and sensing devices. Multilayers comprised of ferromagnetic and non-magnetic metals (FM–NM) are interesting materials, as their magnetic anisotropy depends strongly on composition and growth parameters. In this context, (Co/Pd) multilayers have gained huge interest recently due to their robustness and tunable PMA. Here, we report a systematic study of the effect of composition on the magnetic anisotropy of (Co/Pd) multilayers grown by Direct Current (DC) magnetron sputtering. Four different series of (Co/Pd)(×10) multilayers with different thicknesses of Co and Pd were examined. Vibrating sample magnetometery was used to determine the magnetic anisotropy of these films. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy experiments were performed to understand the structural morphology of the films. Our results showed that (Co/Pd)(×10) multilayers exhibit PMA when the Co to Pd ratio is less than or equal to 1 and the thickness of Co layers is not more than 5 Å. Maximum effective anisotropy energy is shown by the films with a Co to Pd ratio of 1/3.