Abstract
By investigating angular dependence of resistance and applying the Boltzmann distribution to the anisotropy dispersion of the magnetization in an exchange-biased pinned layer, we quantized the intrinsic anisotropy dispersion γ of spin valves. The γ was estimated to be 0.412° for the as-deposited spin valve and 0.183° for the ion-irradiated spin valve. This indicates that the dispersion indeed narrowed when the spin valve was field-annealed or irradiated by 550 eV hydrogen ions under a magnetic field, which is consistent with our previous attribution to the significant improvement in both exchange anisotropy and giant magnetoresistance of spin valves thus treated. Our methodology can be applied for other spin devices characterized by angular dependence of resistance to determine useful device properties such as the intrinsic anisotropy dispersion and the exchange bias of the exchange-biased reference layer.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 07D719 |
| Journal | Journal of Applied Physics |
| Volume | 105 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2009 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported in part by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (MOEHRD, Basic Research Promotion Fund) (Grant No. KRF-2006-331-D00230), and by a grant from the Center for Nanoscale Mechatronics & Manufacturing (Grant No. M102KN010005-07K1401-00530), one of the 21st Century Frontier Research Programs supported by the Korean Ministry of Science and Technology. Soogil Lee would like to gratefully acknowledge the National S & T scholarship from the Korean Government.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Physics and Astronomy(all)