Local probing of the giant magnetoresistance

摘要

We have contacted the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to a Co/Cu magnetic multilayer to locally measure the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) of the multilayer. Apart from a point-contact GMR, the measured MR also reflects a magnetostriction effect in the STM. The resulting GMR ratios are typically 10, with occasional ratios up to 60. We attribute spot-to-spot variations of the ratio to differences in the local structure of the magnetic multilayer.