Optimization of giant magnetoresistance in ion beam sputtered Co/Cu multilayers

Magnetic anisotropy and spin reorientation in Co/Pt multilayers: Influence of preparation

“…Intermixing or alloying at the interface can dramatically reduce the interface anisotropy [12,13]. The intermixing of interfaces utilizing ECR sputtering is attributed to the deposition of high-energy atoms and bombardment of the growing film by Ar + ions with even higher energy [6,14,15]. Thus strong effects of interface intermixing are known for ion beam sputter deposition.…”

Structural, magnetic and transport properties of ion beam deposited Co thin films

“…The low deposition rates that one can obtain in IBD also result in a good film thickness uniformity. Furthermore, the deposition parameters in IBD (ion flux, energy and species or angle of incidence) can be more independently controlled and optimized than in other sputtering systems [10,11]. Note that IBD was successfully used to fabricate advanced magnetic nanostructures like multilayers [12], spin valves [9,10,13] and both AlO x [14,15] and MgO [16] magnetic tunnel junctions.…”

Atomic assembly of metal surfaces and interfaces

“…These effects are experimentally avoided by kinetically constraining the deposition process. Unfortunately, the metallic multilayers grown in this way contain bulk lattice defects and significant interfacial imperfections [7,12,13]. Efforts to improve structural perfection by increasing the growth temperature or by decreasing the deposition rate are then severely constrained by the thermodynamically driven processes discussed above [12,13].…”

“…Many vapor deposition methods including magnetron sputtering [1,[14][15][16], ion beam deposition (IBD) [12,16] and even molecular beam epitaxy [18] have been experimentally investigated for the growth of metallic multilayers under kinetic constraint. Each method provides access to specific combinations of substrate temperature, deposition rate and assisting ion fluxes.…”