Effects of Ni/sub 81/Fe/sub 19/ underlayer and Ar ion bombardment to deposition of (111) oriented Fe/sub 50/Mn/sub 50/ layers for spin valve devices

[Ni/sub 81/Fe/sub 19//Cu/Ni/sub 81/Fe/sub 19//Fe/sub 50/Mn/sub 50/] multilayers for Spin Valve devices were deposited by dual ion beam sputtering method. Antiferromagnetic FeMn layers in Spin Valve devices require the well (111) orientations of crystallites in order to attain proper exchange-bias field. In this study, validity of Ni-Fe underlayers were investigated to enhance (111) orientation of crystallites in FeMn layers. The moderate ion bombardment to the growing Ni-Fe underlayer seemed to promote the growth of (111) oriented FeMn crystallites. The adoption of these Ni-Fe/FeMn bilayers as antiferromagnetic layers in Spin Valve devices was useful to attain preferably high exchange-bias field and field sensitivity.