Giant magnetoresistance in electrodeposited Ni-Cu/Cu multilayers and anisotropic magnetoresistance in pulse-plated NixCu1-x alloy films

Ni-Cu/Cu multilayers and NixCu1-x alloy films were electrodeposited on Au-coated glass substrates from a sulfamate-based electrolyte. The room-temperature magnetoresistance of the multilayers was studied as a function of the ferromagnetic Ni-Cu layer thickness. Giant magnetoresistance was observed, which peaked at about 1% for a Ni-Cu layer thickness around 15 Angstrom. Magnetoresistance measurements of NixCu1-x films of different composition were obtained at both room temperature and 77 K. Anisotropic magnetoresistance of up to 1.1% and 1.7% was observed at room temperature and 77 K, respectively.