Magnetic structure determination for annealed Ni{sub 80}Fe{sub 20}/Ag multilayers using polarized-neutron reflectivity
- National Inst. of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD (United States). Reactor Radiation Div.
- Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States). Research Reactor Facility
- IBM Storage Systems Div., San Jose, CA (United States)
Sputtered Ni{sub 80}Fe{sub 20}/Ag multilayers, annealed post-growth, show giant magnetoresistive (GMR) effects at unusually low magnetic fields ({approx} 5 Oe). Structural characterization by cross-sectional TEM and x-ray diffraction indicates that the Ag preferentially diffuses into the Ni{sub 80}Fe{sub 20} layers at the interfaces. Using polarized-neutron specular reflectivity, the authors have obtained magnetization depth profiles for a series of annealed [Ni{sub 80}Fe{sub 20}(20{angstrom})/Ag(40{angstrom})]{sub 4} multilayers. Though GMR in related materials is associated with coherent antiferromagnetic alignment of the ferromagnetic layers, specular neutron data for the Ni{sub 80}Fe{sub 20}/Ag multilayers show no trace of half-order spin-flip intensity characteristic of this simple structure. In small applied fields, transverse scans at the half-order position show a broad feature which disappears upon saturation. These data suggest that while the Ni{sub 80}Fe{sub 20} moments are antiferromagnetically correlated along the growth axis, the in-plane magnetic domains are only of micron-order size and are thus not apparent in a specular measurement.
- OSTI ID:
- 225305
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-941144-; ISBN 1-55899-278-2; TRN: IM9621%%235
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Fall meeting of the Materials Research Society (MRS), Boston, MA (United States), 28 Nov - 9 Dec 1994; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of Neutron scattering in materials science 2; Neumann, D.A. [ed.] [National Inst. of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD (United States)]; Russell, T.P. [ed.] [IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA (United States)]; Wuensch, B.J. [ed.] [Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge, MA (United States)]; PB: 813 p.; Materials Research Society symposium proceedings, Volume 376
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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