Magnetism and morphology of Ni/Cu(1 0 0) and Ni–Fe–Ni/Cu(1 0 0) ultrathin films

Ni films and Ni-Fe-Ni trilayers on Cu(1 0 0) have been grown and characterized in situ in their structure and morphology. The magnetic properties have been investigated ex situ using MOKE. It is found that the magnetization is out-of-plane for both systems and that the presence of the Fe interlayer favors the in-plane reorientation. The effect of the Fe layer is interpreted on the basis of the competition between perpendicular interface and dipolar anisotropies. A method based on the coercive field for the orientation of the magnetization is presented.