• Journal of Magnetics
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.147-150
• /
• 2002

The pinning direction, the spin flop behaviors and the magnetoresistive properties in top synthetic spin valve structure [NiFe/CoFe/Cu/CoFe (t$_{p2}$)/Ru/CoFe (t$_{p1}$)/IrMn] were investigated. The magnetoresistive and pinning characteristics of synthetic spin valves strongly depended on the differences in the two pinning layer thickness, ${\Delta}t(=t_{p2}-t_{p1})$. In contrast to the conventional spin valves, the pinning direction (P1) was canted off with respect to the growth field axis with ${\Delta}t$. We found that the canting angle ${\Phi}$ had different values according to the annealing field direction and ${\Delta}t$. When the samples were annealed at above the blocking temperature of IrMn with zero fields, the canted pinned layer could be set along the growth field axis. Because the easy axis which was induced by the growth field during deposition is still active in all ferromagnetic layers except the IrMn at $250{^{\circ}C}$, the pinning direction could be aligned along the growth field axis, even in 0 field annealing.