Magnetic anisotropy of [Ni/sub 80/Fe/sub 20//Mo/Co] spin-valve films grown by MBE

Nigh-quality spin-valve trilayers [Ni80Fe20Mo/CO] have been grown on MO buffer layer on MgO (110) and MgO (100) substrates by MBE. Structure and orientation relationships were determined by XRD and RHEED. The LMOKE studies show that both CO and Ni80Fe20layers exhibit uniaxial magnetic anisotropy for a trilayer grown on MgO (110). On the other hand, nearly isotropic behaviors for the CO and Ni80Fe20layers have been observed for a sample grown on MgO (100). The difference of magnetic anisotropies in the two systems mainly results from the magnetocrystalline effect.