Relationship between thermally activated atomic diffusion processes in Co-Cu nanoscale granular films and electric/magnetic properties

Co-Cu multilayer granular films deposited onto Si substrates have been submitted to thermal treatments in scanning mode. Their magnetisation and resistance have been studied after applying two different heating rates. The comparison between the experimental data measured before and after the treatment points out that the effect of the annealing depends strongly on the heating rate used. We also present XPS data collected as a function of depth to show how the different heating rate modify the composition and chemical environment produced by thermal treatments.