Enhancement of magnetoresistance in Co(1(1)over-bar-00)/Cr(211) bilayered films on MgO(110)

Epitaxial Co/Cr bilayered films have been successfully grown on the MgO(100) and MgO(110) substrates by molecular-beam epitaxy. According to the reflection high-energy electron-diffraction and x-ray-diffraction measurements the crystal structure of the film depends on orientation of the buffer and substrate. Epitaxial growth of biaxial Co(<11(2)over bar 0>)/Cr(100) on MgO(100) substrate and of uniaxial Co(<1(1)over bar 00>)/Cr(211) on MgO(110) substrate has been confirmed. The anisotropy magnetoresistance (AMR) is strongly influenced by the orientation of the Cr buffer. In Co(<11(2)over bar 0>)/Cr(100) on MgO(100) AMR is isotropic for all in-plane fields. However, for Co(<1(1)over bar 00>)/Cr(211) on MgO(110) we observed enhancement of AMR along the easy axis for temperatures below 150 K, while along the hard axis AMR has a local maximum at about 150 K. The easy axis data suggest that the longitudinal spin density wave of Cr and the crystal anisotropy of Co on Cr(211) plane dominate the enhancement of the AMR. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.