STUDY OF Co-BASED MULTILAYERS BY BRILLOUIN LIGHT SCATTERING

We present two major aspects of magnetic anisotropies in Co-based multilayers. Within the framework of a continuum free energy calculation we show that the experimentally observed large uniaxial in-plane anisotropy in epitaxial single-crystal (110)-oriented Co/Pt and Co/Pd superlattices is caused by magnetoelastic interaction. From Brillouin light scattering experiments the lateral and layer-to-layer variations of anisotropies in Co/Pd- and Co/Au-multilayers are analyzed on the length scale of spin-wave excitations (≈ 3000Å), which is also a characteristic length scale for domain formation in magneto-optic recording.