Structural, magnetic, and magnetotransport properties of NiFe/Ag as-deposited multilayers for variable NiFe and Ag layer thickness

Superstructure refinement analyses of x-ray-diffraction data, magnetotransport, and hysteresis loop measurements were performed in Ni81Fe19/Ag ultrathin multilayers. A ferromagnetic coupling and oscillations of coercivity H-c and residual magnetization M(r) at 5 K have been observed as a function of Ag layer thickness, The observed residual stresses in NiFe layers which induce preferable magnetic easy-axes distributions along the strain direction are related with bulk spin-dependent scattering in individual layers for this type of giant magnetoresistive systems. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.