Charakterisierung von anisotropen Magnetowiderstandseffekten in Nanostrukturen aus Permalloy und Eisenaluminium

Magnetic field induced resistance effects are used in digital storage media - like hard- disk read heads [1]. To produce commercial devices it is of utmost importance to understand and tune the effect. The ion beam induced change of ferromagnetic or paramagnetic effects is known since 1986 [2,3]. However, most of the research was done on bulk material. Due to the increasing miniaturization of digital storage devices it is essential to investigate also the behavior in thin films. Taking into account that a commercial use of the devices is favored, it was focused on easy and reproducible sample geometries. The aim of this thesis was to produce, tune and character- ize magnetic field induced resistance changes in thin films of permalloy and iron-aluminum. Af- terwards, the results have been used to create well-defined nanostructures with potential giant magnetoresistance effects. It is shown, that magnetoresistance effects can be created (iron- aluminum) or reduced (permalloy) by ion beam irradiation. The measurements were performed by a self-programmed LabVIEW program with a precise four-terminal sensing setup at low tempera- tures and with a variable magnetic field up to 2.5 T. The variation of the angle between current flow and the magnetic field as well as measurements at different temperatures led to a very good understanding of the occurring phenomena.