Interfacial scattering effect on anomalous Hall effect in Ni/Au multilayers

The effect of interfacial scattering on anomalous Hall effect (AHE) was studied in the (Ni(36/n)nm/Au(12/n)nm)(n) multilayers. Field-dependent Hall resistivity was measured in the temperature range of 5-300K with the magnetic field up to 50 kOe. The anomalous Hall resistivity (rho(AHE)) was enhanced by more than six times at 5 K from n = 1 to n = 12 due to the increased interfacial scattering, whereas the longitudinal resistivity (rho(xx)) was increased nearly three times. A scaling relation rho(AHE) similar to p(xx)(gamma) with gamma = 1.85 was obtained for rho(AHE) and rho(xx) measured at 5 K, indicating that the dominant mechanism(s) of the AHE in these multilayers should be side-jump or/and intrinsic in nature. The new scaling relation rho(AHE) alpha rho(xx0)+ beta rho(2)(xx0)+ b rho(2)(xx)(Tian et al 2009 Phys, Rev. Leo, 103 087206) has been applied to our data to identify the origin of the AHE in this type of multilayer.