Structure and Magnetic Propertics of Fe/Zr Multilayers

In this paper we report results of investigation into structure and magnetic properties of as-deposited Fe/Zr multilayers with different wavelength of modulation, λ, and thicknesses ratio of sublayers r = d$\text{}_{Fe}$/d$\text{}_{Zr}$. Three series of samples with r equal to 0.5, 1, 2 and λ from 12 nm to 1.2 nm were prepared by sputtering technique. The samples were studied by X-ray diffraction and torque curve measurements. It is shown that during deposition amorphization process takes place at interfaces. For nominal Fe sublayer thickness d$\text{}_{Fe}$ smaller than 2 nm the multilayers are found to be completely amorphous independently of r, and consist of alternating Fe-rich and Fe-poor amorphous sublayers.