Relationship between giant magnetoresistance of NiFe/Cu multilayers and their microstructures

The (111)-orientated NiFe/Cu multilayers were prepared by magnetron sputtering method. At room temperature, saturation magnetoresistances of NiFe/CU multilayers oscillate as a function of Cu spacer layer thickness. Two peak GMR values of 19.4%, 11.6% and 11.2%, 1% appear, respectively, at Cu sublayer thickness of t= 1.0, 2.2 nm while the deposition pressures are 0.25 and 0.45 Pa. X-ray small-angle reflections and diffuse scattering at Cu K-edge (8.979 keV) by synchrotron radiation source were used to characterize the interfacial roughness. Diffraction anomalous fine-structure scattering (DAFS) was performed to investigate the local structure of NiFe and Cu sublayers. Results show that the deposition pressure has effect on interfacial roughness of the samples obviously, and the interfacial roughness also affects the GMR values of the samples strongly.