HREM STUDY OF CO CU CO MNFE SPIN VALVES

High resolution electron microscopy (HREM) has been used to investigat e the structure of Co(6nm)/Cu(2.8nm)/Co(4nm)/MnFe(12nm) spin valves so as to correlate the structure with the magnetic properties. The prese nce of a Ti seed layer enhances the structural quality of the film giv ing a strong <111> texture and large grain size. It is shown that the <111> texture favours a high exchange bias field. A numerical analysis of the HREM micrographs has been carried out in order to investigate more quantitatively the structure of the interfaces. It has been shown that locally they are diffuse over 2 monolayers in the growth directi on.