100,000 % ballistic magnetoresistance in stable Ni nanocontacts at room temperature

Abstract

This study reports reproducible, ten thousand to hundred thousand percent ballistic magnetoresistance (BMR) effect in stable electrodeposited Ni nanocontacts at room temperature and in fields of only a few hundred oersteds. Experimental observation of Ni whiskers and nanoconstrictions within these whiskers formed during electrodeposition points towards a picture of multiple ballistic, quasi-ballistic, and diffusive conductors acting in series and parallel to give rise to the observed large BMR effect, instead of a single, monolithic nanocontact.