Study of strain and giant magnetoresistance of Co/Cu magnetic multilayers

摘要

The electrical resistivity rho in various magnetic fields and the structure of [Co(1.02nm)/Cu(t(Cu))](25) magnetic multilayers (MML) have been investigated to clarify the relationship between the transport properties (electrical resistivity and magnetoresistance) and structure (orientation and strain of these layers). The in-plane compressive strain e of antiferromagnetic (AF) Co/Cu MML with t(Cu) = 1.05 nm is larger than that of ferromagnetic (F) Co/Cu MML with t(Cu) = 0.76 mu. Furthermore, it is found that epsilon of the AF-Co/Cu MML is proportional to the magnitude of giant magnetoresistance, whereas that of F-MML is independent of magnetoresistance. This implies that the strain in AF-Co/Cu MMLs showing GMR is closely related to the spin-dependent scattering of conduction electrons at interfaces.