Studies on interfacial and crystalline structures of spin valve multilayers

Spin valves of high quality were fabricated by a two-step deposition procedure. Lower sublayers (i.e., buffer layer Ta/free layer NiFe/inter layer Cu) are deposited at a lower argon pressure, which promoted formation of strong (111) textures, smooth interfaces and dense Cu film, and upper sublayers (i.e., pinned layer NiFe/pinning layer Fe/Mn/cover Ta) are deposited at a higher pressure, which promoted small grains and less diffusive interface. The independent control of the magnetoresistance, the ferromagnetic interlayer coupling, and exchange biasing was achieved by improving the interfacial and crystalline structures of the spin valves