Crystalline reconstruction in Ni-Cr-Fe/Ni-Fe films

摘要

It is found in this study that crystalline reconstruction occurs when a nonmagnetic Ni-Cr-Fe film and a ferromagnetic Ni-Fe film are sequentially deposited, but does not occur when the deposition sequence is reversed. This unexpected phenomenon causes the Ni-Cr-Fe/Ni-Fe films to behave more like a monolayer film that exhibits lower electrical resistance, stronger 〈111〉 texture, and larger polycrystalline grains than Ni-Fe/Ni-Cr-Fe films. This crystalline reconstruction causes an anisotropy magnetoresistance (AMR) sensor to exhibit a high AMR coefficient, and also causes a giant magnetoresistance (GMR) sensor to exhibit a high GMR coefficient. By controlling this crystalline reconstruction, GMR properties can be optimized for the proper operation of the GMR sensor.