Phys. Rev. Lett. Phys. Rev. A Phys. Rev. B Phys. Rev. C Phys. Rev. D Phys. Rev. E Phys. Rev. ST AB Rev. Mod. Phys. Phys. Rev. (Series I) Phys. Rev. Volume: Page/Article:

Phys. Rev. B 44, 9378–9384 (1991)

[Issue 17 – 1 November 1991 ]

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Temperature dependence of the magnetoresistance of sputtered Fe/Cr superlattices

J. E. Mattson, Mary E. Brubaker, C. H. Sowers, M. Conover, Z. Qiu, and S. D. Bader

Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Ilinios 60439

The temperature dependence of the resistivity of three sputtered Fe/Cr superlattices was analyzed. Two are antiferromagnetic and one is ferromagnetic. Also, a series of Fe/Cr superlattices was characterized as a function of Cr thickness by means of resistivity, Kerr-rotation, and x-ray-diffraction measurements. Magnetoresistance measurements for films with 32-Å Fe layers confirm the presence of three oscillations with peaks at ~11, 27, and 42 Å Cr. The Kerr-rotation measurements for fixed Fe thicknesses of 15, 25, 32 and 40 Å indicate that the first antiferromagnetic region is always between ~6 and 17 Å Cr thickness. The low-angle x-ray results show that the structure is not ideal, based on comparison to dynamical simulation or to the quality of similarly prepared Fe/Mo superlattices. The magnetoresistivity of the antiferromagnetic films decays from its maximum value at low temperature with a T² behavior below ~100 K, while a ferromagnetic film could be similarly approximated by a T^3/2 behavior. These power laws are a consequence of the thermal excitation of magnons in these anisotropic antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic superlattices, respectively. The resistivities due to sd-interband scattering rho _sd are approximated by a T² behavior and roughly a T³ behavior, respectively. This indicates that for the antiferromagnetic films the dominant contributions to rho _sd come from processes mediated by magnons as well as phonons.

©1991 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRB/v44/p9378
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.44.9378
PACS: 72.15.Gd, 75.70.Fr, 78.20.Ls, 81.15.Cd

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