Time dependence studies on giant magnetoresistive Co/Cu multilayers

Time dependence studies consisting of applying current steps at fixed applied fields have been carried out on bilinear and biquadratic giant magnetoresistive (GMR) Co/Cu multilayers in a temperature controlled environment. It has been shown that the voltage responses to current steps of these aged multilayers are greater in magnitude before field cycling compared to those made after field cycling. Normalized voltage measurements for some samples suggest a magnetic viscosity effect due to a current step at zero-field is present and before field cycling. The effect is reduced after field cycling. This behavior suggests that the effect being seen is purely magnetic in origin, as only the field is being varied. A ln( ) type function has been curve fitted to the zero field voltage response to a current step before field cycling. Voltage measurements made on the Co/Cu films at different field values show that as the applied fields are increased the voltage response has a reduced ln(t) character.