Hydrogen induced inelastic anomaly in Fe/sub 80/Zr/sub 20/ multilayers

This study investigated the effect of electrolytic hydrogenation on the mechanical and magnetic properties of compositionally modulated (CM) Fe/Zr multilayers with composition Fe/sub 80/Zr/sub 20/ and modulation wavelengths (/spl lambda/) in the range 3 /spl Aring//spl les//spl lambda//spl les/50 /spl Aring/. An amorphous (a) to crystalline (c) structural transition occurred in the Fe sublayers of multilayers with /spl lambda/ between 30 /spl Aring/ and 50 /spl Aring/. A rapid relaxation in the stress induces by hydrogenation was observed only in multilayers with /spl lambda/=20 /spl Aring/. The relaxation was confirmed as a structural change by a simultaneous relaxation in coercivity, that also occurred only in the /spl lambda/=20 /spl Aring/ multilayer. This inelastic anomaly is compatible with previous reports of a bond softening precursor to the amorphous/spl rarr/crystalline phase transition in Fe multilayers.