Microstructural and magnetic properties of 14N+ irradiated Co/Pd multilayers, deposited on ultra-flat large (2.5 in) glass substrates by a special hard disk industrial manufacturing system, are discussed. Upon irradiation with 14N+ ions at different
energies (20–30 keV) and doses (1014–1015 ions/cm2), both the
coercive and nucleation fields were found to change with respect to as
deposited multilayer. Results indicate that the irradiation process leads to
a lowering of the magnetic anisotropy due to the induced disorder and
degradation of the interface quality: for an energy of 30 keV, at an
irradiation level of 1015 ions/cm2, Hc reduces from Hc≈ 5.4 kOe for the as deposited multilayer down to 300 Oe, being the
easy axis still perpendicular to the multilayer plane; at the highest dose
(1016 ions/cm2), the coercivity vanishes and the perpendicular
anisotropy is suppressed.