Anisotropic Magnetoresistance Studies of Electrodeposited Ni-Fe/Cu Multilayers

Electrochemical plating or electrodeposition is one of the simplest and the most helpful methods for preparation alloys thin films and metallic multilayers. In this study، Ni-Fe/Cu multilayers were electrodeposited from an electrolyte consisting of nickel، Iron and copper ions، onto Cu، Ti and Au substrates in different temperatures and pH values. In order to study the structure of crystalline properties of the multilayers، XRD was used and first order satellite peaks were observed. The effect of thickness of nonmagnetic Cu layers was examined by AGFM and SEM on hysteresis and morphology of the multilayers، and it revealed that with increasing thickness of Cu layers، Hc rises and the surface structure of crystals was more uniform than before. Magnetoresistive properties of some selected sampleswere investigated and a maximum value of anisotropic magnetoresistance up to 2. 5% was achieved. However، due to lack of observation of any GMR effect in electrodeposited Ni-Fe/Cu multilayers، antiferromagnetic coupling between magnetic moments of the neighboring Ni-Fe layers was not confirmed.