Structural and magnetic properties of Ni/Cu bilayers evaporated on CuZn substrate

¹ Centre de Recherche Nucléaire d’Alger (CRNA), 16000 Alger, Algeria
² LESIMS, Département de Physique, Université de Sétif 1, Sétif 19000, Algeria
³ Joint International Laboratory LEMAC-LICS, IEMN CNRS 8520, PRES University Lille North of France, EC Lille, 59651 Villeneuve d’Ascq, France

^a e mail: a_layadi@yahoo.fr

Received: 16 July 2014
Revised: 14 September 2014
Accepted: 30 January 2015
Published online: 21 April 2015

Abstract

In this present work we examine the effect of the Ni thickness t (t ranges from 4 to 67 nm) and of the Cu underlayer (with t_Cu = 27, 52 and 90 nm) on the structural and magnetic properties of Ni/Cu bilayers deposited onto CuZn substrate. The Ni films and the Cu underlayer have been deposited by thermal evaporation. The structural properties were derived from X-ray diffraction experiments. The texture, the strain B ε and the grain size D are studied as a function of Ni thickness. The surface morphology is studied by means of a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The magnetic properties were studied by means of the vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and the magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE) technique in the longitudinal configuration. The coercive field, the squareness and the saturation field are investigated as a function of Ni thickness. All these results will be discussed and correlated.