Growth and structural and magnetic properties of multilayer Fe, Co, and Cu nanofilms on silicon

The multilayer nanofilms based on ferromagnetic metals (Fe, Co) and a diamagnetic metal (Cu) and deposited onto a Si(001)2 $\times$ 1 substrate at a low source temperature are studied by Auger electron spectroscopy, electron-energy loss spectroscopy, low-energy electron diffraction, and the magneto-optical Kerr effect. It is shown that, depending on growth conditions, the first several metal monolayers form silicides or a solid solution of silicon in the metal with silicon segregated on it. The introduction of two-dimensional (1–4 monolayers) Cu layers and oblique deposition ($\sim$ 45$^\circ$) result in pseudo-layer-by-layer film growth without silicide formation. The magneto-optical Kerr effect is used to find that the multilayer nanofilms have an easyplane magnetic anisotropy. The influence of the growth conditions and the structure of the films on the magnetization and the coercive field is detected.