All-Heusler multilayer structures have been investigated by means of high kinetic x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism, aiming to address the amount of disorder and interface diffusion induced by annealing of the multilayer structure. The studied multilayers consist of ferromagnetic Co2MnGe and non-magnetic Rh2CuSn layers with varying thicknesses. We find that diffusion begins already at comparably low temperatures between 200 ∘C and 250 ∘C, where Mn appears to be most prone to diffusion. We also find evidence for a 4 {\AA} thick magnetically dead layer that, together with the identified interlayer diffusion, are likely reasons for the small magnetoresistance found for current-perpendicular-to-plane giant magneto-resistance devices based on this all-Heusler system.
@article{arxiv.1211.0489,
title = {Interface characterization of Co2MnGe/Rh2CuSn Heusler multilayers},
author = {Ronny Knut and Peter Svedlindh and Klas Gunnarsson and Oleg Mryasov and Peter Warnicke and Dario Arena and Matts Björck and D. D. Sarma and Anindita Sahoo and Sumanta Mukherjee and Sari Granroth and Mihaela Gorgoi and Olof Karis},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1211.0489},
year = {2015}
}