Properties of electrodeposited CoFe/Cu multilayers: The effect of Cu layer thickness

• CoFe/Cu multilayers were potentiostatically electrodeposited on Ti substrates.
• Microstructural and magnetoresistance properties of CoFe/Cu multilayers were investigated.
• All films had a face-centred cubic structure irrespective of the multilayer content.
• All samples exhibited GMR and the maximum GMR value was 11%.

CoFe/Cu multilayers were potentiostatically electrodeposited on Ti substrates as a function of different non-magnetic (Cu) layer thicknesses, and their characterizations were investigated. The compositional analysis performed by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy disclosed that the Cu content in the multilayers increased and the Co content decreased as non-magnetic layer was increased. However, the Fe content was almost stable. The scanning electron microscopy studies showed that the surface morphology of the films is strongly affected by the non-magnetic layer thickness, and X-ray diffraction was used to analyse the structural properties of the multilayers and revealed that the multilayers have face-centred cubic (fcc) structure and their preferred orientations change depending on the Cu layer thickness. In the case of magnetoresistance measurements of the multilayers performed at room temperature, the highest giant magnetoresistance (GMR) values exhibited for the films with the Cu layer thickness (6.0 nm) whereas the lowest GMR magnitudes were observed for the films without Cu layer. Therefore, the variations of the Cu layer thicknesses were observed to have a significant effect on the GMR of multilayers. The differences observed in the magnetotransport properties were attributed to the microstructural changes caused by the Cu layer thickness.