Title :
Effect of magnetostriction and unidirectional interlayer coupling on spin-valve free layer reversal
Author :
Lim, C.K. ; Chapman, J.N. ; O´Donnell, O.D. ; Johnston, Adrian B.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Phys. & Astron., Glasgow Univ., UK
Abstract :
Summary form only given. Lorentz transmission electron microscopy has been used to investigate the free layer reversal process in four different top spin-valve structures. These crossed anisotropy spin-valves were of the form seed/FL/Cu/CoFe/PtMn/cap and seed/FL/Cu/CoFe/Ru/CoFe/PtMn/cap, where pinning was by conventional AFM and synthetic antiferromagnet (SAF) respectively. FL denotes free layer which in one case was CoFe and in the other a NiFe/CoFe bilayer. We refer to the stacks as NiFe/CoFe AFM, NiFe/CoFe SAF, CoFe AFM and CoFe SAF; the offset fields H/sub 1/ and magnetostriction coefficients were (14Oe, 0.4/spl times/10/sup -6/), (2.2Oe, -2.3/spl times/10/sup -6/), (10.4Oe, 6.6/spl times/10/sup -6/) and (10.8Oe, 7.6/spl times/10/sup -6/) respectively. Magnetic imaging by TEM was carried out in a controlled field environment using a combination of Lorentz lenses and the standard objective lens.
Keywords :
antiferromagnetic materials; cobalt alloys; iron alloys; magnetic anisotropy; magnetostriction; manganese alloys; platinum alloys; spin valves; transmission electron microscopy; Cu-CoFe-PtMn; Cu-CoFe-Ru-CoFe-PtMn; Lorentz transmission electron microscopy; crossed anisotropy spin-valves; free layer reversal; magnetostriction coefficients; spin-valve structures; synthetic antiferromagnet; unidirectional interlayer coupling; Anisotropic magnetoresistance; Annealing; Astronomy; Conductivity; Couplings; Lenses; Magnetization; Magnetostriction; Physics; Space technology;
Conference_Titel :
Magnetics Conference, 2002. INTERMAG Europe 2002. Digest of Technical Papers. 2002 IEEE International
Conference_Location :
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-7365-0
DOI :
10.1109/INTMAG.2002.1001197
