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Stress in Sputtered Co90Fe10/Ag GMR Multilayers
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
Abstract
Stress, giant magnetoresistance (GMR), structure, and magnetic properties of sputtered (Co90Fe10X Å/Ag Y Å)×20 multilayer films have been investigated at room temperature where X ranges from 7.5 to 25 Å and Y from 10 to 60 Å. These films exhibit distinct GMR behaviors dependent on individual layer thicknesses, including layered granular-type GMR in CoFe 7.5 Å samples and ‘discontinuous’ GMR (DGMR) in CoFe 15 and 25 Å samples with Ag thicknesses over 30 Å. No antiferromagnetic coupling was observed. CoFe 10 Å samples act as a transition between GMR behaviors. Compressive stress decreases with increasing Ag thickness in the CoFe 7.5 Å samples. In the CoFe 15 and 25 Å samples the stress fluctuates similarly depending on Ag thickness. The difference in stress and MR behavior between the CoFe 7.5 Å and the 15 and 25 Å samples is thought to be due to incomplete CoFe layering in the CoFe 7.5 Å samples. In the CoFe 15 Å DGMR samples, high temperature annealing resulted in tensile stresses large enough to cause film detachment. X-ray diffraction reveals a strong (111) growth texture as well as satellite peaks from coherent layering. This (111) texture is also evidenced by patterns with hexagonal symmetry formed by the detached films.
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- Copyright © Materials Research Society 1997
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