*** 9760258 Spitzer This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will investigate properties of giant magnetoresistance,(GMR) at nanoscale feature sizes. Miniaturization of GMR films is expected to lead to improved characteristics, such as faster switching times. A number of investigators have found GMR values to increase with miniaturiztion, but with an attendant increase in their coercivity, i.e., the required switching field. The proposer has developed GMR films with ultralow coercivities, an order of magnitude lower than previously attained. Because of their structure, these films are expected to exhibit the increase in GMR values reported by others upon miniaturization, while maintaining low coercivity. A variety of GMR films with different design parameters will be fabricated and tested at 100 nm feature size. These films wil be used to design integrated solid -state devices that use no semiconductors, such as e GMR-based electronic components. The characteristics of these devices will be stimulated. Their performance-is expected to show improvement with miniaturization. OMR films form the foundation for various integrated devices without semiconductors. The potential applications of such devices include nonvolatile memory and storage, as well as general-purpose all-metal electronics, with billion-dollar markets. ***
