• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.265-273
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• 1997

The MR ratios and the exchange biasing field and interlayer coupling field were investigated in $Ni_{91}Fe_{19}/Co_{90}Fe_{10}/Cu/Co_{90}Fe_{10}/NiO$ spin-valve sandwiches grown on antiferromagnetic NiO films as a function of the NiO thickness, the thickness of Cu and pinning layer $Co_{90}Fe_{10}$. The spin-valve sandwiches were deposited on the Corning glass 7059 by means of the 3-gun dc and 1-gun rf magnetron sputtering at a 5 mtorrpartial Ar pressure and room temperature. The deposition field was 50 Oe. The MR curve was measured by the four-terminal method with applied magnetic soft bilayer [NiFe/CoFe] (90$\AA$) decreased dramatically to less than 10 Oe when the NiFe/CoFe bilayer used an NiFe bilayer thicker that 20$\AA$. So NiFe layer improved the softmagnetic properties in the NiFe/CoFe bilayer. The GMR ratio and the magnetic field sensitivity of the spin-valve film $Ni_{91}Fe_{19}(40{\AA})/Co_{90}Fe_{10}(50{\AA}) /Cu(30{\AA})/Co_{90}Fe_{10}(35{\AA})/NiO(800{\AA})$ was 6.3% and about 0.5 (%/Oe), respectively. The MR ratio had 5.3% below an annealing temperature of 20$0^{\circ}C$ which slowly decreased to 3% above 30$0^{\circ}C$. The large blocking temperature of the spin-valve film was taken (as being) due to the good stability of the NiO films. Thus, the spin-valve films with a free NiFe/CoFe layer clearly had a high large GMR output and showed a effective magnetic field sensitivity for a suitable spin-valve head material.