Effect of separated layer thickness on magnetoresistance and magnetic properties of Co/Dy/Co and Ni/Dy/Ni film systems

Abstract

Co(5 nm)/Dy(t[Formula: see text])/Co(20 nm)/S and Ni(5 nm)/Dy(t[Formula: see text])/Ni(20 nm)/S trilayer films are prepared by electron-beam sputtering to investigate the influence of dysprosium layer thickness (t[Formula: see text]) and thermal annealing on the crystal structure, magnetoresistance (MR) and magnetic properties of thin films. The thickness of Dy layer changed in the range from 1 nm to 20 nm. The samples annealed for 20 min at 700 K. Electron diffraction patterns reveal that the as-deposited and annealed systems Co/Dy/Co and Ni/Dy/Ni had fcc-Co + hcp-Dy and fcc-Ni + hcp-Dy phase state, respectively. It is also shown that at the t[Formula: see text] = 15 nm the transition from amorphous to crystalline structures of Dy layer is observed. An increase in the Dy layer thickness results in changes in the MR and magnetic properties of the trilayer systems. It is shown that MR is most thermally stable against annealing to 700 K at t[Formula: see text] = 15 nm for Co/Dy/Co as well as for Ni/Dy/Ni. For t[Formula: see text] = 15 nm the, value of MR for both system increases by two times compared to those of pure ferromagnetic (FM) samples. The coercivity (B[Formula: see text]), remanent (M[Formula: see text]) and saturation (M[Formula: see text]) magnetization of the in-plain magnetization hysteresis loops are related to the Dy layer thickness too. The coercivity depends on the FM materials type and diffusion processes at the layer boundary. Accordingly, M[Formula: see text] and M[Formula: see text] are reduced with t[Formula: see text] increasing before and after annealing for both trilayer systems.