GIANT MAGNETORESISTANCE IN COFE CU MULTILAYERS WITH DIFFERENT BUFFER LAYERS AND SUBSTRATES/

The effect of crystallographic texture on GMR and magnetic properties of CoFe/Cu multilayers prepared by dc magnetron sputtering has been st udied. To induce different film textures, buffer layers such as Fe, Cr , Ta, Cu and Al have been used. The effect of various substrates are a lso reported. Multilayers with Cu, Al, Ta and no buffer layer result i n (111) film texture. Films with a Cr buffer show a mixture of (111) a nd (200) texture, whereas an Fe buffer results in poorly textured/crys tallized film. Films with (111) texture have the lowest saturation fie ld. The GMR magnitude appears relatively insensitive to texture. Littl e change in the GMR characteristics is observed when the substrate is changed from glass to Si(100) or Si(111).