The magnetic and structural properties in Co/Cu/Co sandwiches with Ni and Cr buffer layers were investigated. It was found that the coercivity in Ni layer buffered samples decreases with increasing Ni layer thickness, while that in Cr layer buffered ones increases with increasing Cr layer thickness, leading to a large difference in field sensitivity of their giant magnetoresistance (GMR) properties. X-ray diffraction and high resolution transmission electron microscope images exhibited that there is a strong fcc (111) texture in the samples with Ni buffer layer. But there are only randomly oriented polycrystalline grains in Cr buffered sandwiches. According to atomic force microscope topography, the surface roughness of Cr buffered sandwiches is smaller than that of Ni buffered ones. It is demonstrated that buffer layer influences both magnetic and Structural properties in Co/Cu/Co sandwiches as well as their GMR characteristics.
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