Application of an extended van der Pauw method to anisotropic magnetoresistance measurements of ferromagnetic films

We demonstrate anisotropic resistivity measurements using the extended van der Pauw (vdP) method in ferromagnetic Ni80Fe20 (Py) films. We apply it to measure anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) and compare the results of the vdP method with the more conventional Hall-bar method along the hard and easy axis of the film and show that the vdP method gives more reliable AMR result. For instance the AMR result along the hard and easy axis of the film are in close agreement. Further, we applied the vdP method to study AMR in a series of Py films with thicknesses ranging between 10-250 nm. The films were grown by sputtering deposition at an angle with respect to the substrate normal and with an in situ magnetic field, both conditions assisting in the definition of in-plane uniaxial anisotropy. The microstructure of Py films was characterized using x-ray reflectivity, diffraction and polar mapping of (1 1 1) planes. We detected no off-normal texture and negligible surface roughness, which indicates that self-shadowing is not dominating in our growth. Yet the films have well defined uniaxial anisotropy. Abrupt changes in the average resistivity versus film thickness were observed, which cannot be explained by the models accounting for the thickness and grain size but strongly correlate with the changes in (1 1 1) texture in the films. We compared our results with the literature and show that independent of growth method, substrate and deposition temperature, the AMR value presents a saturation behavior with thickness at about 100 nm.