Burgers vector types and the dislocation structures in sputter-deposited Cu-Nb multilayers

► The dislocation density is determined in Cu and Nb layers by X-ray line broadening. ► An X-ray method is applied to always sample the same texture component. ► The dislocation density in Cu layers is independent of the layer and total thickness. ► The overwhelming majority of Burgers vectors is parallel to the interface. ► The strength is modeled on the basis of the substructure data.