Rw. Cross et al., MAGNETORESISTANCE OF THIN-FILM NIFE DEVICES EXHIBITING SINGLE-DOMAIN BEHAVIOR, IEEE transactions on magnetics, 31(6), 1995, pp. 3358-3360
Rectangular NiFe stripes as small as 1 x 5 mu m were fabricated and ch
aracterized as a function of film thickness. Gold current leads were s
puttered and patterned onto the stripes so that magnetoresistance meas
urements could be performed. A uniform in-plane magnetic field was app
lied transverse to the stripe length and at various angles from the pe
rpendicular direction. For film thicknesses greater than 10 nm, the ma
gnetoresistance for all of the devices had large jumps and hysteresis
due to domain formation. As the thickness of the film decreased below
10 nm, the domain structure disappeared for stripe heights 2 mu m or l
ess. Theoretical calculations of the magnetization reversals were obta
ined using a numerical implementation of the Stoner-Wohlfarth model fo
r the switching of a single-domain ellipsoidal particle. The calculati
ons were used to predict the switching field where the magnetization r
eaches an unstable threshold, causing a jump in the magnetization and
magnetoresistance. The model was in close agreement with experimental
results for various field orientations.