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We have observed spin-wave Brillouin light scattering from ultrathin Co/Au/Cu͑111͒ films with Co thicknesses t Co down to 1 monolayer ͑ML͒ and with a 1-ML Au interlayer. The detection of a well-defined spin-wave spectrum and the field dependence of its frequency show directly long-range collective and ferromagnetic ordering in these films at room temperature. From the field dependence of the spin-wave frequency, we derive uniaxial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy constants as a function of t Co with various overlayer materials, including Cu, Pd, and Au. With a Cu overlayer, we observe that the first-order perpendicular anisotropy K u(1) obeys well a linear relation between K u (1) t Co and t Co for t Co м1.5 ML, which indicates a constant contribution of the interface anisotropy of 0.16 mJ/m 2 in addition to the volume anisotropy of 0.73 MJ/m 3 . With an Au or a Pd overlayer, we find that both the interface and volume anisotropies are significantly larger than those with the Cu overlayer. We quantify magnetic inhomogeneities from the field dependence of the spectrum width. With the Au or Pd overlayer, K u (1) shows a steep decrease with decreasing t Co for t Co Ͻ3.0 ML, which agrees well with a significant increase in the structure-related magnetic inhomogeneity. We show directly that long-ranged ferromagnetic ordering exists, with the perpendicular anisotropy, in our quasimonatomic Co films thinner than 1.5 ML. K u (1) for each overlayer tends to be zero at 1 ML of Co, accompanied by heavy damping of the spin wave. In addition, we find the second-order perpendicular anisotropy is still maintained with a comparable value to K u (1) in such quasimonatomic Co films, indicating significant deformation of the uniaxial anisotropy.

We have studied ultra-thin Co/Au(111) films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy by means of spin-wave Brillouin scattering. The ultra-thin Co films with thicknesses from 1 to 7 monolayer (ML) were grown by molecular beam epitaxy on 1 ML Au underlayers without intentional substrate heating. With 2 or more MLs of Co, spin-wave excitations are clearly observed. We find the magnetic field dependence of the spin-wave energy can be quantitatively explained by a calculation including out-of-plane magnetization due to uniaxial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. The first-order perpendicular anisotropy constant systematically increases as the Co thickness decreases from 7 to 3 ML. The second-order perpendicular anisotropy constant is much smaller than that expected in Co(0001) bulk and also increases as the Co thickness decreases. The physical origin of the thickness dependence of the perpendicular anisotropy is discussed. We find the field dependence of the scattering intensity is different between Stokes and anti-Stokes processes. Finally, with 2 ML of Co, significant broadening of the spin-wave spectrum is observed, as well as the degradation of the perpendicular anisotropy. We believe this is the result of the effect of magnetic inhomogeneities due to the structural imperfections.