Strong biquadratic coupling and antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic crossover in NiFe/Cu multilayers

Journal Article · Wed Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1997 · Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.56.7819· OSTI ID:632581

Pettit, K ^[1]; Gider, S; Parkin, S S ^[2]; Salamon, M B ^[3]

---

1. Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 1110 W. Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801-3080 (United States)
2. IBM Research Division, Almaden Research Center, 650 Harry Road, San Jose, California 95120-6099 (United States)
3. Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801-3080 (United States)

We report clear manifestations of biquadratic exchange in the magnetoresistance (MR) of (110) single-crystal NiFe/Cu multilayers. Magnetoresistance curves show a low-field MR minimum which results from an asymmetric canting of the moments away from the applied magnetic field. The stability of these magnetic configurations indicates that the biquadratic coupling can be significantly stronger than the bilinear coupling. In samples with ferromagnetic (F) bilinear coupling the strength of both the bilinear and biquadratic coupling decays in the temperature range from 200 to 400 K. In samples that are coupled antiferromagnetically (AF) at room temperature, we observe a crossover from AF to F bilinear coupling as the temperature is lowered below 200 K. We attribute the strong biquadratic coupling and temperature dependence of the bilinear coupling to pinholes in the Cu spacer layers. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}

• Research Organization: University of Illinois
• DOE Contract Number: FG02-91ER45439
• OSTI ID: 632581
• Journal Information: Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter, Journal Name: Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter Journal Issue: 13 Vol. 56; ISSN 0163-1829; ISSN PRBMDO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ANTIFERROMAGNETIC MATERIALS
COPPER
COUPLING
FERROMAGNETIC MATERIALS
IRON ALLOYS
LAYERS
MAGNETORESISTANCE
NICKEL ALLOYS
PERMALLOY
STABILITY
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0065-0273 K
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0273-0400 K