Correlation between evolving magnetic and morphological properties in magnetic multilayers

Author

Doherty, S.A. ; Zhu, J.G. ; Dugas, M. ; Anderson, S. ; Tersteeg, J.

Author_Institution

Data Storage Syst. Center, Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Volume

34

Issue

4

fYear

1998

fDate

7/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

840

Lastpage

842

Abstract

The effect of roughness on the magnetic properties of RF sputtered, thin film multilayers of NiFe, Cu, Co (CoFe) is described. The mean roughness (R_a), measured via atomic force microscopy, is shown to increase linearly with the number of layers. The R_a of 0.43 nm for a single trilayer increased to 1.53 nm for a stack of ten trilayers. Similarly, the saturation field increased as the number of layers increased. The saturation field of 45 Oe for a single trilayer, increased to 141 Oe for a stack of ten trilayers. For the NiFe/Cu/Co(CoFe) systems studied, the coercivity and saturation field of the individual magnetic layers are shown to be position sensitive properties due to the evolution of roughness through the thickness of the stack

Keywords

Permalloy; atomic force microscopy; cobalt alloys; coercive force; copper; giant magnetoresistance; iron alloys; magnetic multilayers; sputtered coatings; surface topography; NiFe-Cu-CoFe; RF sputtered thin film; atomic force microscopy; coercivity; giant magnetoresistance; magnetic multilayers; roughness; saturation field; single trilayer; trilayer stack; Atomic force microscopy; Atomic measurements; Force measurement; Magnetic field measurement; Magnetic films; Magnetic multilayers; Magnetic properties; Radio frequency; Saturation magnetization; Sputtering;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.706279

Filename

706279