Thermal Characterization of Cu/CoFe Multilayer for Giant Magnetoresistive (GMR) Head Applications

Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR) head technology is one of the latest advancement in hard disk drive (HDD) storage industry. The GMR head superlattice structure consists of alternating layers of extremely thin metallic ferromagnet and paramagnet films. A large decrease in the resistivity from antiparallel to parallel alignment of the film magnetizations can be observed, known as giant magnetoresistance (GMR) effect. The present work characterizes the in-plane electrical and thermal conductivities of Cu/CoFe GMR multilayer structure in the temperature range of 50 K to 340 K using Joule-heating and electrical resistance thermometry in suspended bridges. The thermal conductivity of the GMR layer monotonously increased from 25 Wm−1 K−1 (at 55 K) to nearly 50 Wm−1 K−1 (at room temperature). We also report the GMR ratio of 17% and a large negative magnetothermal resistance effect (GMTR) of 33% in Cu/CoFe superlattice structure. The Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) is used to estimate the GMR ratio, and to investigate the effect of repeats, as well as the spin-dependent interface and boundary scatting on the transport properties of the GMR structure. Aside from the interesting underlying physics, these data can be used in the predictions of the Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) failure and self-heating in GMR heads.Copyright © 2004 by ASME