An in situ study of MBE grown metallic multilayers by simultaneous measurements of optical reflectance and reflection high energy electron diffraction

The variation in optical reflectance during growth was investigated in situ for Co/Cu multilayers prepared in a molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) chamber, while the RHEED intensity was simultaneously monitored. The effect on the growth of the addition of a small amount of Pb impurity was studied. The unexpected drop in reflectance for the initial growth of Cu on Co in a multilayer with one monolayer of Pb remained but disappeared after a higher coverage of Pb was introduced. In the case of the higher Pb coverage, RHEED results confirmed that a substantial amount of Pb remained at the surface during, and after, multilayer growth.