Magnetisation and hydrogenation of Mg/Ni multilayers

In this contribution we have studied magnetisation of Mg/Ni multilayers (MLs) to characterise the alloing effect near interfaces. The layered structure was characterised by standard X-ray diffraction. The MLs were deposited by UHV magnetron sputtering onto naturally oxidised Si(100) substrates. Results showed, that due to Mg-Ni alloy formation near interfaces the magnetizations of the MLs were strongly reduced. Effective "dead" Ni layer thickness was estimated as 1.2 nm at room temperature (RT). Furthermore, hydrogen absorption kinetics at a pressure of about 1000 mbar was studied at RT in Pd covered Mg/Ni MLs using four-point resistivity measurements. Results showed that the fastest initial rise in resistance in the first 9 s was observed for d_{Ni}=3.5 nm.