Direct measurement of the dependence of granular giant magnetoresistance on the relative orientation of magnetic granules

Experiments have been designed to vary the relative angle between the magnetic moments of different Co granules in Cu80Co20 granular system. The moments of granules are mostly aligned in the same direction by field cooling to low temperature in a high magnetic field. A small field applied at an angle relative to the cooling field rotates the moments of a portion of the granules that have small particle size and coercivity. It is found that the giant magnetoresistance ~GMR! varies linearly with cosf, where f is the relative angle between the magnetic axes of granules. This behavior disappears if the sample is cooled in zero fields, or if the rotating field is too large or small, or if the measuring temperature is higher than the blocking temperature. Our results show that the GMR in granular structures has the same angular dependence as the layered films and confirm the existing theories and recent microscopic models of granular GMR suggesting a crucial role of the relative orientations of the magnetic granules in determining the spin dependent scattering. © 2000 American Institute of Physics