Title :
Highly sensitive giant magnetoresistance in NiFe/(Ni/Fe/Cu)n /NiFe thin films
Author :
Kouchiyama, Akira ; Miyauchi, Teiichi ; Watanabe, Kenjiro
Author_Institution :
Corp. Res. Labs., Sony Corp., Tokyo, Japan
fDate :
11/1/1994 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
GMR of 0 to 6.95% has been found in fields of 0 to 50 Oe at room temperature in NiFe (5 nm)/[Ni(1.58 nm)/Fe(0.42 nm)/Cu(2.1 nm)]8 /NiFe(7 nm) thin films prepared by DC magnetron sputtering with extremely precise thickness control. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the GMR curve was 10.4 Oe. The top and bottom NiFe layers had antiferromagnetic coupling to adjacent Ni/Fe layers across the Cu layers and also maintained magnetically soft characteristics. The NiFe/(Ni/Fe/Cu)8/NiFe sensor which was 40 nm thick, 3.5 μm wide and 15 μm long showed a large output 4 times as large as NiFe/Al 2O3/NiFe sensors
Keywords :
copper; electric sensing devices; giant magnetoresistance; iron; iron alloys; magnetic heads; magnetic multilayers; magnetic thin films; nickel; nickel alloys; soft magnetic materials; sputtered coatings; 0.42 to 7 nm; 40 nm; DC magnetron sputtering; NiFe-Ni-Fe-Cu-NiFe; NiFe/(Ni/Fe/Cu)8/NiFe sensor; NiFe/(Ni/Fe/Cu)n/NiFe thin films; antiferromagnetic coupling; magnetically soft characteristics; magnetoresistance; magnetoresistive sensor; Antiferromagnetic materials; Couplings; Giant magnetoresistance; Iron; Magnetic sensors; Sensor phenomena and characterization; Soft magnetic materials; Sputtering; Temperature sensors; Thickness control;
Journal_Title :
Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on