Increased field sensitivity in Co/Cu multilayers with soft adjacent layers

Author

Jardine, Daniel B. ; Mathur, Neil D. ; Blamire, Mark G. ; Evetts, Jan E.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mater. Sci., Cambridge Univ., UK

Volume

34

Issue

4

fYear

1998

fDate

7/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1297

Lastpage

1299

Abstract

The use of simple magnetic multilayers such as Co/Cu in high-sensitivity magnetic devices is limited by the high saturation field required to achieve the maximum GMR. Most GMR devices currently use spin-valve structures which exhibit significantly smaller GMR values but have a much lower saturation field, and hence a higher sensitivity. We have demonstrated a GMR device based on Co/Cu with an integrated soft adjacent layer (SAL) structure to enhance the low field sensitivity to 60% mT^-1 in applied fields of appropriate orientation below 1 mT. This high sensitivity to small magnetic fields and their direction makes devices of this type well suited for a variety of applications

Keywords

cobalt; copper; giant magnetoresistance; magnetic multilayers; sputtered coatings; Co-Cu; Co/Cu multilayers; field sensitivity; giant magnetoresistance; saturation field; soft adjacent layers; spin-valve structures; Amorphous materials; Argon; Electrical resistance measurement; Giant magnetoresistance; Magnetic devices; Magnetic multilayers; Nonhomogeneous media; Sputtering; Substrates; Temperature;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.706527

Filename

706527