Magnetic And Transport Properties Of Ag/Co90fe10 Granular Multilayers

We report experimental results on the magnetic and transport properties of Ag/Co90Fe10 multilayers with variable Ag and Co90Fe10 thicknesses. The magnetism samples was characterized by magnetization measurements and ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy. These measurements show that the magnetic layers are in general composed by single-domain particles and that the shape and the size of the magnetic clusters can be changed by using an applied magnetic field (H-dep) on deposition. The resistivity of these multilayered systems is described by a mixed model that includes current-in-plane and current perpendicular plane transport contributions. The transport model proposed to explain the experimental results emphasizes the role played by the magnetic entities on the scattering processes and strongly depends on the silver layer thickness. An electrical percolative transition is observed for samples grown at H-dep>H-dep(*) while the magnetic properties of these samples still show a granularlike behavior. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.