Sensitivity Dependence of the Planar Hall Effect Sensor on the Free Layer of the Spin-Valve Structure

Author

Hung, T.Q. ; Oh, S.J. ; Tu, B.D. ; Duc, N.H. ; Phong, L.V. ; Anandakumar, S. ; Jeong, J.-R. ; Kim, C.G.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mater. Sci. & Eng., Chungnam Nat. Univ., Daejeon

Volume

45

Issue

6

fYear

2009

fDate

6/1/2009 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2374

Lastpage

2377

Abstract

Planar Hall effect (PHE) sensors with the junction size of 50 mum times 50 mum were fabricated successfully by using spin-valve thin films Ta(5)/NiFe(x) /Cu(1.2)/NiFe(2)/IrMn(15)/Ta(5) (nm) with x = 4, 8, 10, 12, 16. The magnetic field sensitivity of the PHE sensors increases with increasing thickness of ferromagnetic (FM) free layer. The sensitivity of about 95.5 m Omega/(kA/m) can be obtained when the thickness of the FM-free layer increases up to 16 nm. The enhancement of sensitivity is explained by the shunt current from other layers. The PHE profiles are well described in terms of the Stoner-Wohlfarth energy model. The detection of magnetic micro-beads label Dynabeads^reg M-280 is demonstrated and the results revealed that the sensor is feasible for high-resolution biosensor applications.

Keywords

Hall effect; ferromagnetic materials; iridium alloys; iron alloys; magnetic sensors; magnetic thin films; manganese alloys; nickel alloys; spin valves; tantalum; thin film sensors; PHE sensors; Stoner-Wohlfarth energy model; Ta-NiFe-Cu-NiFe-IrMn-Ta; ferromagnetic layer thickness; high-resolution biosensor; label Dynabeads M-280; magnetic field sensitivity; magnetic microbeads; planar Hall effect sensor; shunt current; spin-valve structure; spin-valve thin films; Biosensor applications; high field sensitivity; micro-beads detection; planar Hall effect;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMAG.2009.2018578

Filename

4957684