Micromagnetic studies of antiferromagnetism and resistance-field curves in giant magnetoresistive Co/Al/NiFe

Author

Wei, Dan

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mater. Sci. & Technol., Tsinghua Univ., Beijing, China

Volume

34

Issue

2

fYear

1998

fDate

3/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

552

Lastpage

557

Abstract

Magnetic properties and magnetoresistance of a Co/Al/NiFe giant-magnetoresistance (GMR) spin valve are analyzed by a new micromagnetic simulation model for the strongly interacting soft magnetic materials. The coercivity is less than 10 Oe in an isolated Co or NiFe film. However, in the Co/Al/NiFe GMR structure with a 80 Å interlayer spacing, the coercivity of the Permalloy film increases to 208 Oe; and the remnant magnetization in the Co film even has an opposite sign with that in the NiFe film, which means the two magnetic films coupled anti-ferromagnetically in a zero external magnetic field. The looped resistance-magnetic field (R-H) curve is obtained. The noise during the switching process can be decreased and the linearity of the R-H curve can be improved by an orientation distribution of anisotropy fields for the GMR sample

Keywords

Permalloy; aluminium; antiferromagnetic materials; cobalt; coercive force; giant magnetoresistance; magnetic anisotropy; magnetic thin films; remanence; soft magnetic materials; Co-Al-NiFe; DMF-GMR spin valve; Permalloy film; anisotropy field; antiferromagnetism; coercivity; giant magnetoresistance; linearity; magnetic properties; micromagnetic simulation model; orientation distribution; remnant magnetization; resistance-magnetic field curve; soft magnetic material; switching noise; Analytical models; Antiferromagnetic materials; Coercive force; Giant magnetoresistance; Magnetic analysis; Magnetic films; Magnetic properties; Micromagnetics; Soft magnetic materials; Spin valves;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.661490

Filename

661490