Eur. Phys. J. B 4, 413-420 (1998)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510050398

The temperature dependence of the perpendicular giant magnetoresistance in Co/Cu multilayered nanowires

¹ Unité de Physico-Chimie et de Physique des Matériaux, Université Catholique de Louvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
² Unité Mixte de Recherche du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et de Thomson, Laboratoire Central de Recherches Thomson, 91404 Orsay, France and Université Paris-Sud, bâtiment 510, 91405 Orsay, France
³ Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Université Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay, France

Corresponding author: ^a piraux@pcpm.ucl.ac.be

Received: 25 January 1998
Accepted: 6 May 1998
Published online: 15 August 1998

Abstract

A theory, based on earlier work by Valet and Fert, is first presented to describe the influence of temperature on the perpendicular giant magnetoresistance (GMR) in multilayers. Then we present GMR measurements performed at T=77 K and at room temperature on Co/Cu multilayered nanowires with layer thicknesses ranging from a few nm to 1 μm. We use our model to obtain a good quantitative fit to the experimental results in both the short spin diffusion length limit and out of this limit. We discuss the temperature dependence of the bulk parameters, the scattering spin asymmetry coefficient and spin diffusion length in the Co layers.