Cathode sputtered permalloy films of high AMR effect and low coercivity

The anisotropic magnetoresistive (AMR) effect of dc sputtered Ni 81%-Fe 19% films has been increased up to /spl Delta//spl rho///spl rho/=3.93% at 50 nm thickness. Investigations have been concentrated on the influence of the target current, the target-substrate distance, and of the temperature of both target and substrate material. As a function of the applied magnetic bias field, the easy axis coercivity of the permalloy film is between 100 A/m and 200 A/m due to induced anisotropy. The dc magnetisation curves represents an almost ideal Stoner-Wohlfarth behaviour with a hard axis coercivity between 0 and 20 A/m.