Interface effects on Gd induced disordering of Co films on Pt(111)

Amorphization of epitaxial Co thin films grown on top of a Pt(111) surface has been studied by surface X-ray diffraction after deposition of Gd overlayers. The results indicate strong differences of the disordering process depending on the thickness of the Co film. First basic difference is that thick Co films (15 atomic layers) are only partially amorphized by 4 atomic layers of Gd on top of them, whereas thinner Co films (5 atomic layers) are completely disordered by just 2 atomic layers of Gd. Moreover, amorphization by Gd overlayers induces different stress relaxation processes in both cases. For 15 atomic layers thick Co films a preferential amorphization of the more strained Co grains is observed, leading to an effective relaxation of about − 0.5% of the in-plane lattice parameter during amorphization, approaching its relaxed value. On the contrary, for 5 atomic layers thick Co films, the initial steps of disordering are accompanied by a stronger increase of the in-plane lattice constant, by about 1.4%, typical of Co–Pt interface alloy formation, followed by a complete amorphization. Furthermore, the magnetic characterization, carried out by magneto-optical Kerr effect and resonant magnetic surface X-ray diffraction, strongly supports that the amorphization of thin Co films is changing the nature of the Co/Pt interface. In particular, as Gd overlayers are deposited, and the amorphization proceeds, the structural disordering of the Co/Pt interface flips its characteristic perpendicular magnetic anisotropy toward in-plane orientation before the complete magnetic depolarization of the interface Pt atoms is reached. All these results confirm a marked dependence of amorphization processes on film thickness, which can be related to the enhanced influence of the nearby film/substrate interface.