Low-field spin-valve magnetoresistance in Fe-Cu-Co sandwiches

Abstract

Fe-Cu-Co sandwiches have been grown on glass and silicon substrates using electron beam evaporation. Because the typical coercive field of a thin Co film is higher than that of a typical Fe film, the magnetization curves of these sandwiches show clearly the separate, sequential reversal of the Fe and Co moments as a function of applied field. In the applied field region where the moments of the two magnetic layers are antialigned, the spin-valve magnetoresistance shows a peak of over 3% in amplitude at room temperature.