Giant magnetoresistance in electrodeposited Co-Cu/Cu multilayers: Origin of the absence of oscillatory behavior

Abstract

A detailed study of the evolution of the magnetoresistance was performed on electrodeposited Co/Cu multilayers with Cu layer thicknesses ranging from 0.5 nm to 4.5 nm. For thin Cu layers (up to 1.5 nm), anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) was observed whereas multilayers with thicker Cu layers exhibited clear giant magnetoresistance (GMR) behaviour. The GMR magnitude increased up to about 3.5 to 4 nm Cu layer thickness and slightly decreased afterwards. According to magnetic measurements, all samples exhibited ferromagnetic (FM) behaviour. The relative remanence turned out to be about 0.75 for both AMR and GMR type multilayers. This clearly indicates the absence of an antiferromagnetic (AF) coupling between adjacent magnetic layers for Cu layers even above 1.5 nm where the GMR effect occurs. The AMR behaviour at low spacer thicknesses indicates the presence of strong FM coupling (due to, e.g., pin-holes in the spacer and/or areas of the Cu layer where the layer thickness is very small). With increasing spacer thickness, the pin-hole density reduces and/or the layer thickness uniformity improves which both lead to a weakening of the FM coupling. This improvement in multilayer structure quality results in a better separation of magnetic layers and the weaker coupling (or complete absence of interlayer coupling) enables a more random magnetization orientation of adjacent layers, all this leading to an increase of the GMR. Coercive field and zero-field resistivity measurements as well as the results of a structural study reported earlier on the same multilayers provide independent evidence for the microstructural features established here. The large GMR reported previously on such Co/Cu multilayers at Cu layer thicknesses around 1 nm can be attributed to the presence of a fairly large superparamagnetic (SPM) fraction rather than being due to a strong AF coupling.