Highly ordered nanometric spin-valve arrays: Fabrication and giant magnetoresistance effect

In this Letter, we introduce a new method for producing nanoscale spin valves. Using electrodeposition technique, the deposition of Ni80Fe20/Cu/Ni80Fe20/Mn50Fe50 spin-valve structures was carried out in self-organized nanoporous anodized aluminium templates. Field emission scanning electron microscopy reveals that the nanometric spin-valve arrays, of uniform size, are well separated and exhibit a very perfect two-dimensional array with a hexagonal pattern. The ferromagnetic layers are magnetically soft and not coupled antiparallel, giving very large changes of resistance at low fields.