FIELD-DEPENDENT INTERFACE RESISTANCE OF AG/CO MULTILAYERS

For Ag thicknesses large enough to magnetically decouple the Co layers, the resistances in magnetic field of a series of Ag/Co multilayers with the current flowing perpendicular to the layer plane are consistent with a simple series summation of resistances due to the Ag and Co layers plus an "interface resistance," R(Ag-Co)(H), that depends upon the relative orientations of the magnetizations in neighboring ferromagnetic layers in different magnetic fields, H. The resulting Co resistivity is weakly field dependent, and R(Ag-Co)(H) is strongly field dependent: AR(Ag-Co)(H), where A is the sample area, decreases from almost-equal-to 0.6 f-OMEGA m2 at the initial field, H-0=0, to almost-equal-to 0.2 f-OMEGA m2 at the saturation field, H(S).