Preparation of granular Co/Cu by ion-beam mixing of laser-deposited multilayers

Co/Cu multilayers were prepared by crossed-beam pulsed laser deposition and
characterized by high-angle X-ray diffraction as well as specular and non-specular reflection. The as-deposited structure has
a higher rms roughness than magnetron sputtered Co/Cu multilayer. In
general the roughness of the interface is described by a very large lateral correlation length and a high jaggedness.
Ion-beam mixing of the multilayers with 150 keV Cu ions and a fluence of
up to 5e15 Cu/cm^2 leads to the formation of a granular system of superparamagnetic Co clusters in Cu, as it is shown by magnetic
measurements.