Abstract
The magnetoresistance (MR) properties of a basic Ta/NiFe/IrMn/CoFe/Ru/CoFe/Cu/CoFe/Cu/Ta synthetic spin valve (SV) system have been systematically studied by using O2-soaked layers in five different positions. It is found that about 10% of MR ratio enhancement can be achieved without sacrificing other merits of SVs when the O2-soaking dose is controlled in the vicinity of 10−3 Pa s. It is probably due to improvement of the spin-dependent scattering (increasing the spin-dependent transmission coefficient and reducing the diffusion scattering coefficient) after O2 soaking either within the pinned layers or within the spacer layer.