Angular dependence of the Giant Magnetoresistance effects

L.B. STEREN ; A. BARTHELEMY ; J.L. DUVAIL; A. FERT; R. MOREL; F. PETROFF; P. HOLODY; R. LOLOEE; P. A. SCHROEDER

PHYSICAL REVIEW B

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

Año: 1995 vol. 51 p. 292 - 296

1098-0121

  We have studied the angular dependence of the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) for Ni80Fe20/Ag/Co/Ag and Ni80Fe20/Cu/Co/Cu multilayers, in which the Co layers are discontinuous and composed of a collection of clusters. In these structures, the magnetization of the Ni80Fe20 layers can be rotated by a small applied field without affecting the remanent magnetization of the Co clusters. We analyze our results with a method that allows us to separate accurately GMR and anisotropic magnetoresistance and we find that the angular dependence of the GMR does not exhibit the features expected to arise from the existence of interface spin-dependent potential steps.