Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
Results from in-situ measurements of stress during growth of (111)-textured Ni/Cu multilayers with small and large bilayer periods are presented. In multilayers with small bilayer periods, Ni is in uniform tension and Cu in uniform compression. This behavior is modeled as the growth of a coherent multilayer with alloying in the layers. In multilayers with large bilayer periods, stress relaxation is observed but the measured stresses are much lower than expected based on a Mathews-Blakeslee relaxation process. An alternative stress relaxation mechanism based on high defect densities is presented and discussed.