Structural and electrical properties of Ni/Co superlattices using Pb as a surfactant

To obtain informations about the correlation between structure and electrical property in metallic multilayers, we have fabricated Ni/Co superlattices with and without Pb as a surfactant by molecular beam epitaxy. From the observations of RHEED and x-ray diffraction patterns, we confirmed that the surfaces of Ni/Co superlattices with Pb are flatter and the interfaces are sharper than one without Pb, which means that Pb operates as an effective surfactant. We have investigated the electrical properties of superlattices by measuring magnetoresistance. The initial change of resistance with magnetic field from 0 to 1 kOe was larger for the superlattices with a surfactant, while once magnetic field was applied, the effect of a surfactant to resistivity change was not observed. This suggests that Pb also changes the initial magnetic domain structure and the magnetotransport property of Ni/Co superlattice is not sensitive to interface structure.