Magnetic and magnetotransport properties of metallic multilayers

Abstract

Magnetic and magnetotransport studies carried out on Dy/Fe, Fe/Si and Co/Cu multilayers are presented. In the case of the Dy/Fe multilayers, the Fe layer is normal ferromagnetic and Dy layer is superparamagnetic. M-H curves measured at 4.2 K showed that the ferromagnetic contribution is almost absent. Zero field cooled and field cooled magnetization measurements also does show any transition at the Neel and Curie temperatures confirming the superparamagnetic behaviour. In Fe/Si multilayers, the magnetization behaviour is correlated with the decreasing thickness of the Fe layers. Hall resistance was also obtained as a function of the Fe layer thickness. Studies on the Co/Cu multilayers showed that the peaks in the magnetoresistance data occurred at larger magnetic fields than the coercivity of the samples.