Magnetoresistance of polycrystalline gadolinium with varying grain size

Abstract

In this paper, we report a study of evolution of low field magnetoresistance (MR) of Gadolinium as the grain size in the sample is changed from few microns (∼4 μm) to the nanoscopic regime (∼35 nm). The low field MR has a clear effect on varying grain size. In large grain sample (few μm), the magnetic domains are controlled by local anisotropy field determined mainly by the magnetocrystalline anisotropy. The low field MR clearly reflects the temperature dependence of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy. For decreasing gain size, the contribution of spin disorder at the grain boundary increases and enhances the local anisotropy field.