Granular Co/Ag multilayers with crystalline coherence

Abstract We have made Co/Ag multilayers with ten repeats on MgO (1 0 0) single-crystal substrates at room temperature by magnetron sputtering from independent sources and keeping the Ag layers as thick as 40 A. The analysis of the X-ray diffraction indicates a coherent structure of Ag layers with a lattice parameter 2.355 A close to the bulk FCC (1 1 1) spacing and Co layers with 2.13 A spacing corresponding to HCP (1 0 0) planes. Other experiments show the granular in-plane morphology and a large interfacial disorder. These Co layers develop in-plane magnetization and electrical magneto-transport whose properties are thickness dependent.