Crystallographic stacking faults in antiferromagnetically coupled media

Synchrotron x-ray scattering has been used to examine stacking faults in the constituent layers of an antiferromagnetically coupled (AFC) media film. By varying the x-ray incident angle, we have varied the x-ray penetration depth and, hence, the layer under examination. Three films were studied, one consisting of a full AFC media structure and the other two consisting of a single magnetic layer with the thicknesses of the constituent layers in the AFC medium. The stacking faults in the bottom magnetic layer were investigated using the single layer film. The stacking fault density in the top AFC media layer was measured using careful depth profiling to ensure that the penetration depth of the x rays remained within the top layer. We were unable to estimate the stacking faults in the bottom layer film but the stacking fault densities are constant at approximately 5% for the top layer of the AFC media and the top layer single film within a relatively large error of 3%. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.