Doping effects of a nano-nitride layer at the interfaces of a NiO/Co/Cu/Co/Cu structure

NiO/Co/Cu/Co/Cu spin valves with a doped nano-nitride layer (NNL) at different interfaces have been investigated. The positions of the NNL have a significant influence on magnetoresistance (MR). When the NNL is doped at the top interface with the resulting structure of NiO/Co/Cu/Co/NNL/Cu, the MR is higher than that of the non-doped structure, while MR becomes relatively small when the NNL is doped at the bottom interface between NiO and Co. A detailed analysis is given. This study might be considered as useful for furthering understanding of how to tailor MR with NN-Ls. (c) 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.