MAGNETORESISTANCE OF CO AU MULTILAYERS AS A FUNCTION OF THE NUMBER OFCO LAYERS/

The magnetoresistance (MR) of antiferromagnetically coupled and uncoup led Co/Au multilayers was studied as a function of the number of Co la yers. For the antiferromagnetically coupled samples a complete antipar allel alignment of adjacent Co layers was not always observed [1] and hence the MR was sometimes not as large as could be expected. When the adjacent Co layers have different coercive fields the most antiparall el alignment of the magnetisation direction of adjacent Co layers is o bserved for an odd number of Co layers less than seven.