Activation energy of interdiffusion and interface structure for CoFe/Cu spin-valves

Author

Saito, A.T. ; Iwasaki, Hisao ; Kamiguchi, Y. ; Fuke, H.N. ; Sahashi, M.

Author_Institution

Res. & Dev. Center, Toshiba Corp., Kawasaki, Japan

Volume

34

Issue

4

fYear

1998

fDate

7/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1420

Lastpage

1422

Abstract

Annealing time and temperature dependences of MR ratio in CoFe/Cu spin-valves were investigated. Thermal deterioration of MR ratio was well explained by considering two phenomena with effective activation energies of 2.16 eV and 1.57 eV for CoZrNb/NiFelCoFe/Cu/CoFe/FeMn spin-valves, and considering one phenomenon with a value of 2.49 eV for CoZrNb/NiFe/CoFe/Cu/CoFe/IrMn spin-valves, respectively. These values are in good agreement with activation energies of interdiffusion based on the vacancy mechanism. It is shown that no significant change in MR ratio is evaluated from the effective activation energies for the period of more than 10 years at 150°C in CoZrNb/NiFe/CoFe/Cu/CoFe/IrMn spin-valve films

Keywords

annealing; chemical interdiffusion; cobalt alloys; copper; giant magnetoresistance; interface structure; iron alloys; magnetic heads; magnetic multilayers; thermal stability; vacancies (crystal); 150 degC; CoFe-Cu; activation energy; annealing time; interdiffusion; interface structure; spin-valves; temperature dependence; vacancy mechanism; Annealing; Atomic measurements; Current measurement; Density measurement; Energy measurement; Giant magnetoresistance; Perpendicular magnetic recording; Temperature dependence; Thermal conductivity; Thermal stability;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.706568

Filename

706568