Peculiarity of magnetoresistance of discontinuous ferromagnetic thin films

The magnetoresistive properties of discontinuous ferromagnetic Fe and Co thin films deposited by electron-beam sputtering onto glass substrates at room temperature were investigated. Tunnel magnetoresistance (MR) was observed for all of the as-deposited samples. The maximum MR was observed for Fe thin films with an effective thickness of 17 nm. In the case of the Co thin films, the annealing process led to a change of the type of MR to anisotropic at Co film thicknesses (d_Co) of 15 ≤ d_Co ≤ 25 nm and to positive isotropic at thicknesses of d_Co < 15 nm. By contrast, the MR type of Fe thin films did not change.