Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR) of Exchange-Biased Spin Valves of Co_90Fe_10/Cu in the Current Perpendicular to the Plane (CPP) Geometry
Abstract
Exchange-biased spin-valves (EBSV) are important in the study of GMR because of the ability to control magnetic order: the direction of magnetization of one ferromagnetic (F) layer of a F/N/F sandwich (N = non-magnetic metal) is pinned by exchange-biasing to a anti-ferromagnet (AF), while the direction of magnetization of the other F layer is free to rotate in an applied field. We present the first CPP-MR measurements of Co_90Fe_10/Cu EBSV, where Co_90Fe_10 was chosen because of its large expected spin asymmetry (α =12) (I.A. Campbell and A. Fert, in Ferromagnetic Materials, E.P. Wohlfarth, Ed. (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1982), p. 768.), leading to a much larger CPP-MR than the corresponding Co/Cu EBSV for layer thicknesses less than 45 nm. The addition of Fe also reduces the spin diffusion length to about 8 nm. Measurements with Co_90Fe_10/Cu/ Ni_86Fe_14 multilayers will also be presented.
- Publication:
-
APS March Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- March 1998
- Bibcode:
- 1998APS..MAR.O2201R