Abstract
We have studied the structure and magnetoresistive properties of polycrystalline current-perpendicular-to-plane giant magnetoresistance pseudo spin-valves (PSVs) with Co2Mn(Ga0.25Ge0.75) (CMGG) ferromagnetic layers and a Ag spacer. With (110) textured CMGG thin films and (111) textured Ag spacer, the PSVs annealed at 350 °C with 2 nm CoFe buffer layers showed ΔRA of 3.7 mΩ μm2 and MR ratio of 12.2%, while the PSVs without the buffer layer showed ΔRA of only 1.3 mΩ μm2. High angle angular dark field images showed that the drop of ΔRA by annealing was due to the deterioration of the multi-layer CMGG/Ag/CMGG structure. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy images further confirmed the interdiffusion between CMGG layer and the Ag layer outside the CMGG/Ag/CMGG trilayer. In addition, we discuss the difference in the magnetoresistive properties of polycrystalline and epitaxial PSVs.
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