Static and dynamic magnetic studies of compositionally modulated thin films

New data on the magnetic behavior of compositionally modulated Pd-Ni and Cu-Ni thin films are presented. The room temperature magnetization density (M) and first-order uniaxially anisotropy constant (K) were determined by using a torque magnetometer. The temperature dependence of K was obtained from ferromagnetic resonance experiments. For the Cu-Ni system measurements were also performed on a SQUID magnetometer and the results of the three experiments were in agreement. It was found that, for the Pd-Ni system, the moment per Ni-atom for different films with various asymmetric wavelengths may exceed that of pure Ni, in contrast to the Cu-Ni films. For the later ones it is shown that, when ∼3 atomic planes of Ni are isolated between ∼6 Cu planes, the ferromagnetic behaves as a two-dimensional ferromagnetic.