Thickness-dependent magnetic and magnetoresistance properties of permalloy prepared by field assisted tilt sputtering

This paper presents magnetic and anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) results of permalloy Ni80Fe20 films of different thickness (10–250 nm). The films were grown by sputter deposition at an angle, with in-situ magnetic field assisting the definition of uniaxial anisotropy. The results show that there is negligible change in anisotropy field (Hk) and resistivity with thickness down to 50 nm. However, for thinner films (<50 nm) Hk and resistivity increase rapidly with decrease in film thickness. The coercivity (Hc) of our films was found to be independent of the thickness, in all cases below 1.5 Oe. The AMR increases with the film thickness and saturates at higher thicknesses.