Ni/NiO multilayers were grown by magnetron sputtering at room temperature,
with the aid of the natural oxidation procedure. That is, at the end of the
deposition of each single Ni layer, air is let to flow into the vacuum chamber
through a leak valve. Then, a very thin NiO layer (~1.2nm) is formed.
Simulated x-ray reflectivity patterns reveal that layering is excellent for
individual Ni-layer thickness larger than 2.5nm, which is attributed to the
intercalation of amorphous NiO between the polycrystalline Ni layers. The
magnetization of the films, measured at temperatures 5–300K, has almost bulk-
like value, whereas the films exhibit a trend to perpendicular magnetic
anisotropy (PMA) with an unusual significant positive interface anisotropy
contribution, which presents a weak temperature dependence. The power-law
behavior of the multilayers indicates a non-negligible contribution of higher
order anisotropies in the uniaxial anisotropy. Bloch-law fittings for the
temperature dependence of the magnetization in the spin-wave regime show that
the magnetization in the multilayers decreases faster as a function of
temperature than the one of bulk Ni. Finally, when the individual Ni-layer
thickness decreases below 2nm, the multilayer stacking vanishes, resulting in
a dramatic decrease of the interface magnetic anisotropy and consequently in a
decrease of the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy