Stability of perpendicular anisotropy in NiFe/Au/Co/Au multilayers

The influence of annealing on a giant magnetoresistance, magnetization reversal, and microstructure of magnetron sputtered spin valve [NiFe/Au/Co/Au]10 multilayers (MLs) consisting of ferromagnetic layers with alternating in-plane (NiFe) and out-of-plane (Co) magnetic anisotropy has been investigated. It is shown that properties of the MLs are relatively stable against annealing up to 263 °° C and are primarily influenced by mixing at Au/Co interfaces. The MLs with thicker Co layers are more stable.