Anisotropic giant magnetoresistive effect in the sandwich based FexNi1−x (x ≈ 0.5) and Cu

The anisotropic effect of a giant magnetoresistance (GMR) in the three-layer FexNi1−x/Cu/FexNi1−x/Sub (x ≈ 0.5, Sub is the substrate) magnetically ordered film is analyzed experimentally and theoretically using the phenomenological approach. It is shown that in the case when the direction of the current density vector j coincides with the direction of the local magnetization vector M (j∥M) in magnetic layers, the consideration of the resistance anisotropy results in a decrease in the magnitude of the GMR effect; and while the vectors are mutually perpendicular in the film plane (j⊥M), the GMR value increases. The analysis of the size dependence (dependence of the top magnetic layer on the thickness dm2) of the magnetoresistance ratio (MR ratio) shows that, in the case of the isotropic GMR effect, when inequalities dm2 > dm1) (dm1 is the thickness of the bottom magnetic layer) hold, the indicated effect is negligible due to shunting of the top layer resistance by the base layer resistance (shunting of the base layer resistance by the top-layer resistance). In the case when the magnetic layer thicknesses are comparable in size (dm1 ~ dm2), the magnitude of the anisotropic giant magnetoresistance (AGMR) acquires its maximum (amplitude) value because of the absence of the shunting effect. The method for calculating the asymmetry parameter αlj=l0j+∕l0j– (l0js is the spin-dependent free path of charge carriers in the s = ±th spin channel of the jth magnetic layer), which characterizes the difference in the free paths of electrons in the spin conduction channels, is proposed for the first time. Graphical abstract