Optical and magneto-optical properties of sputter deposited Co/Cu multilayers

The paper is concerned with the optical and first-order magneto-optical properties of Co/Cu multilayers and the dependence of these on the sub-layer thicknesses. We demonstrate that the optical constants of the multilayer as a whole may be related to those of a single equivalent homogeneous layer whose optical constants are related to those of cobalt and copper. However, in order to do, this it is necessary, in the case of ultra-thin copper, to modifl the effect of the free and bound electron contribution to the dielectric constant, whereas in the case of cobalt this is unnecessary. The effects of this modification to the high frequency transport properties of copper can be clearly seen in the dispersion of the first-order magneto-optic polar Kerr effect of the multilayers.