Substantial enhancement in the performance of a spin valve through the ultra-thin insertion of partially oxidized Fe

We found that the ultra-thin insertion of a mix of Fe and Fe oxide in the pinned layer substantially enhanced the performance of a spin valve. With the exchange bias field kept large, the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) reached 11.3%, which corresponded to a 46% increase in GMR compared with the GMR of spin valves without the insertion. We attribute this considerable enhancement to spin-dependent scattering boosted by the combined effect of the modified local electronic structures at the Fe and specular reflections at the α-Fe2O3 of the insertion