Spinflop Behavior and Magnetoresistance for the Fe/Gd Double Structured Multilayer Films

Fe/Gd doublestructured multilayer films, composed of two different types of Fe/Gd sub-multilayers, were prepared by rf sputtering. One of the two sub-multilayers was Fe (15Å) /Gd (5Å), with the magnetization of the Fe layers dominating. The other sub-multilayer was Fe (5Å)/ Gd (15Å), in which the magnetization of the Gd layers dominates at room temperature. A definite spinflop behavior of the magnetization was observed even at room temperature and in low magnetic fields. It was also found that the spinflop resulted in a crossover of the longitudinal and transverse magneto-resistance curves. The magnetic field at which the spinflop occurs was found to decrease with increasing superstructure period.