Effect of Annealing on the Magnetic Properties of Sputtered Co/Cu Multilayers

Alternating-gradient "eld magnetometry (AGFM) and surface magneto-optical Kerr e!ect (SMOKE) have been exploited in order to study the magnetic properties of both as-prepared and annealed Co/Cu multilayers. It is shown that the e!ect of annealing is to enhance the net saturation magnetization and to modify the bulk and interface anisotropy constants. This is also con"rmed by detection of both spin waves and acoustic phonons by Brillouin light scattering (BLS). The modi"cation of the saturation magnetization and of the anisotropy constants can be correlated to the structural modi"cations caused by the thermal treatment.