Ru/Ni multilayers of different Ni thicknesses have been fabricated using magnetron sputtering. The structure of the multilayers has been determined by grazing incidence x-ray diffraction and x-ray reflectivity and their magnetic properties by magnetization and polarized neutron reflectivity measurements. The presence of Ru leads to the formation of a hexagonal Ni structure within an interfacial layer ?1 nm above each Ru layer, while the rest of the Ni layer relaxes to the equilibrium fcc structure. The hcp Ni interfacial layer has a substantially increased cell volume, and is ferromagnetic with an atomic magnetic moment that increases with Ni layer thickness but remains lower than the value predicted from ab initio calculations.
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