High-field magnetoresistance measurements on Ni75Co25 and Ni40Co60 alloys at 3 K and 300 K

Abstract

In the present work, a detailed field dependence of the resistivity of Ni75Co25 and Ni40Co60 bulk alloys was measured at T = 3 K and 300 K up to high magnetic fields. The focus of the study was to determine the anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) and to get a quantitative description of the field-induced resistivity change, the latter not yet being available for Ni-Co alloys. The AMR parameters were derived from the resistivity data in the magnetically saturated (monodomain) state by using the Kohler analysis. The values of the AMR ratio were found to be close to the relevant previous data both at low and high temperatures. Due to the measurement precision and careful data evaluation, our AMR data obtained on well-characterized samples can be considered as reference values for the bulk state of the investigated compositions. In addition, also the resistivity anisotropy splitting was determined. The experimentally found field dependence of the resistivity at both T = 3 K and 300 K turned out to be at variance with the current theoretical descriptions both for the resistivity increase due to the ordinary magnetoresistance effect being significant at T = 3 K and for the resistivity decrease due to the magnon suppression process at T = 300 K, invoking for a refinement of theory in both cases.