DOMAIN-WALL CONTRIBUTION TO GIANT MAGNETORESISTANCE OF MAGNETIC MULTILAYER STRUCTURES WITH SLIGHT ROUGHNESS

We present the theory explaining the formation of domains with paralle l and antiparallel orientation of magnetisation vectors of the layers. An external magnetic field leads to a single-domain state of the laye r and thus eliminates the contribution of domain walls to the resistiv ity. A characteristic domain size within the range of 0.1-1.0 mu m app ears to be enough to explain quantitatively the changes in the magneto resistance value observed in numerous experiments. The theory also exp lains sharp peaks in the magnetoresistance dependence on average thick ness of the nonmagnetic interlayer.