Effect of Preferred Orientation on Magnetoresistive Properties of Fe/Cr Multilayers

Fe/Cr multilayer films were prepared by an alternating deposition technique in ultra-high vacuum on MgO (100), glass, and sapphire (0001) substrates. Giant magnetoresistive changes were observed in the three kinds of multilayer films. Films on glass substrate had a poly-crystalline structure and showed a `magnetoresistive change of 8.4% at room temperature and 26.4% at 77 K under applied magnetic fields of up to 7 kOe. Sharp and flat interfaces result in a larger magnetoresistive change. Epitaxial growth on GaAs (100) substrate is not essential for producing the giant magneto-resistivity.