THE IMPACT OF INCREASING LAYER THICKNESS ON MAGNETIZATION, RESISTIVITY, MAGNETORESISTANCE AND HALL-EFFECT IN CU NI MULTILAYERS/

The magnetization, magnetoresistance, and Hall resistivity of Cu/Ni mu ltilayers monotonically increase with increasing layer thicknesses of these two metals. On the other hand, the resistivity, and the change i n the Hall resistivity monotonically decrease with the corresponding c hange in layer thicknesses. The phenomena of an oscillatory magnetores istance, which is observed in similar multilayered systems, was not ob served in this study. In the past, researchers had observed oscillator y magnetoresistance by maintaining the magnetic layer thickness at a c onstant value while varying the non-magnetic layer thickness. In this study, both the Cu as well as the Ni layer thicknesses were varied in equal amounts to minimize any differences which may arise due to the s ize effect of the two elements. It seems that the size effect has a de cisive impact on the magnetoresistance of Cu/Ni multilayers. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited