ABSTRACTPolycrystalline Fe/Pt multilayers of varying bilayer period, Λ, were sputter deposited onto SiO2 at room temperature. Film structure was characterized by x-ray diffraction, hardness was determined using nanoindentation, and stresses were examined with wafer curvature. The Fe layers were shown to be predominantly {110} oriented while the Pt layers were mostly {111} oriented. The hardnesses of these multilayer films were enhanced over the rule of mixtures value by a factor of almost 3 and exhibited a dependence on Λ which was similar to that previously observed in epitaxial Fe(001)/Pt(001) multilayers. The hardnesses of the polycrystalline multilayers were higher than those of the epitaxial multilayers, presumably due to grain boundary strengthening in these films. Film stress was large (∼1.5 GPa) and compressive, resulting in buckling-driven delamination of the film from the substrate for films with 40≤Λ≤100 Å. Delamination occurred in the “telephone cord” morphology and was observed in real time. A qualitative discussion of our observations of this delamination mechanism is presented.