Sn. Mao et Z. Gao, Improvement of giant magnetoresistance properties of CrMnPt spin valves bydc magnetron sputtering, J APPL PHYS, 87(9), 2000, pp. 6662-6664
CrMnPt spin valve films with high a giant magnetoresistance (GMR) ratio of
14% were fabricated using dc magnetron sputtering. The switching field is a
bove 700 Oe and the blocking temperature is 320 degrees C for a 250 A CrMnP
t pinning layer in a simple top spin valve stack. The exchange interfacial
coupling constant is of 0.22 erg/cm(2) which is much higher than that of th
e rf sputtered films. The as-made spin valve shows an abnormal resistance t
ransition below the blocking temperature of 150 degrees C. The results indi
cate that the deposition method can influence the GMR properties greatly th
rough the modification of the microstructure. (C) 2000 American Institute o
f Physics. [S0021-8979(00)93908-2].