Giant magnetoresistance in soft magnetic NiFeCo/Cu multilayers with various buffer layers

Abstract

The effect of buffer layers on giant magnetoresistance has been investigated for Ni 66Fe 16Co 18/Cu multilayers with Fe, FeCo, NiFeCo and CoZr buffer layers. The structure and the antiferromagnetic coupling strength of the multilayers were found to depend on the crystal structure of buffer layers. At a Cu layer thickness of 2.2 nm, which correponds to the 2nd peak of MR ratio, the multilayers with NiFeCo and CoZr buffer layers exhibited much smaller saturation fields than those with Fe and FeCo buffer layers.