Thermal behaviour of Co/Si/W/Si multilayers under rapid thermal annealing

The e-beam deposited multilayers (MLS) were studied under rapid thermal annealing (RTA) between 250°C and 1000°C during 30 s. MLS with five Co/Si/W/Si periods, each 13.9 nm (MLS1) and 18 nm (MLS2) were deposited onto oxidized Si substrates. Samples were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, hard and soft X-ray reflectivity measurements and grazing incidence X-ray diffuse scattering. The MLS period, interface roughness and its lateral and vertical correlations were obtained by simulation of the hard X-ray reflectivity and diffuse scattering spectra. The MLS1 with thinner Co layers is more temperature resistant. However, its soft X-ray reflectivity is smaller. The results show that this is because of shorter lateral and vertical correlation lengths of the interface roughness which may considerably influence the X-ray reflectivity of multilayers.