Abstract
Structural defects like local ferromagnetic short-circuits are responsible for large reductions of the intrinsic interlayer coupling in the case of antiferromagnetically (AF) coupled multilayers (ML). We have investigated the role of such point defects in AF-coupled Cu-Co ML’s with tCu=8Å and tCo=12Å which have been irradiated with various doses of 200 keV xenon ions. A significant decrease of the giant magnetoresistance and of the saturation field is observed when the density of defects is increased. These results are compared with a micromagnetic model that takes into account local discontinuities of the AF coupling in an ideally AF-coupled ML. Evidence for the presence of such defects is investigated by TEM on cross-sectional specimens.
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Bobo, J.F., Snoeck, E., Piecuch, M. et al. Effect of Ion Irradiation on the Artificial Structure and the Interlayer Coupling of Copper-Cobalt Multilayers. MRS Online Proceedings Library 343, 423–428 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-343-423
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-343-423