Giant magnetoresistance in an epitaxial NiMnSb/Cu/CoFe multilayer

摘要

We have fabricated current-in-plane giant magnetoresistive (GMR) devices based on multilayers of epitaxial NiMnSb and sputtered Cu and CoFe. The devices show a magnetoresistance of up to 3.5% at room temperature. The amplitude of the current-in-plane GMR signal and the nature of the coupling between the two magnetic layers depend on the thickness of the Cu layer. For a 1.5 nm thick Cu layer, the device exhibits antiferromagnetic coupling, whereas a parallel alignment is observed for 2.2 or 3 nm thick Cu layers at low field.