Fabrication of planar-type ferromagnet/nonmagnet/ferromagnet structures: Using multiangle deposition

Two types of planar-spin-injection devices were proposed, and fabricated by applying the three-layer-resist and multiangle-deposition techniques. One is the in-plane Co/Cu/Co/Cu... structure which consists of wide Co and narrow Co islands connected by Cu islands. It was expected that the current-perpendicular-to-plane-like giant magnetoresistance (GMR) effect would be observed when the magnetizations of the wide and narrow Co islands were antiparallel. However, such magnetoresistance changes were not observed because the GMR was probably smeared out by the anisotropic magnetoresistance of the Co layer. The other is a spin-injection-induced domain wall nucleation device, which consists of a wide and narrow Co wires connected by a Cu island. The switching field of the wide wire depended on the injection current from the narrow wire. Such dependencies were consistent with the model based on the spin-transfer effect.