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Home > Issues > Volume 9 (2004) > No.2(pp.27-68)
GMR in Multilayers with an Alternating In-plane and Perpendicular Anisotropy
Journal of Magnetics, Volume 9, Number 2, 30 Jun 2004, Pages 40-46
Abstract
The magnetic properties of sputtered (Ni83Fe17/Au/Co/Au) multilayers with various thicknesses of Au (0.5≤ tAu≤ 3nm), Ni-Fe (1≤ tNi-Fe≤ 4nm) and Co (0.2≤ tCo≤ 1.5nm) layers were characterized. An alternating in-plane and out-of-plane anisotropy of the ferromagnetic layers was achieved for the structures (tAu≥ 1.5nm) showing a weak coupling between the Ni-Fe layers with an in-plane anisotropy and the Co layers (0.3 ≤ tCo≤ 1.2nm) with a perpendicular anisotropy. For such a structure, a detailed discussion on the GMR effect is presented, relating to the magnetization reversal from a mutually perpendicular magnetic configuration at the remanence to a parallel one at the saturation. An influence of the dense labyrinth domain structure on the magnetoresistance effect is also addressed.
Keywords: GMR; perpendicular anisotropy; multilayers; domain structure
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