NiFe/NiO bilayers with high exchange coupling and low coercive fields

NiO/Ni81Fe19 bilayers with high exchange coupling, H-ex, and low coercivity, H-c, were fabricated. These bilayers with NiO crystalline textures of (111), (200), and (220), and different surface/interface roughness were deposited onto a Si(100) wafer by changing the rf reactive sputtering conditions. A new parameter of exchange coupling to coercivity ratio, H-ex/H-c, was used to quantify the effectiveness of the exchange bias for the bilayer film. An H-ex = 39 Oe and H-c = 4.1 Oe were obtained from a NiO (45 nm)/NiFe (10 nm) bilayer, yielding a ratio of H-ex/H-c = 9.51, which was significantly higher than any previously reported results. An atomic force microscopy study showed that the key to the low coercivity was the reduction of surface roughness of the NiO/NiFe bilayer. It is proposed that the roughness-induced magnetostatic coupling in the NiFe film could be one of the main mechanisms for the relating high coercivity in NiO exchange-biased NiFe bilayer. NiO/NiFe/Co/Cu/Co/NiFe spin-valve films were deposited and a giant magnetoresistance of 6.62% and a field sensitivity of 0.83%/Oe were obtained at room temperature. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.