Investigation of perpendicular anisotropy of a thin film using the Planar Hall Effect

We have used the planar Hall effect (PHE) with the applied field perpendicular to the surface of the plane in order to investigate the perpendicular anisotropy of a thin Co film. To characterise the perpendicular anisotropy we measured the field dependence of the PHE at a fixed angle and the angular dependence of the PHE at a fixed field. The latter dependence was fitted using a single-domain model. The effective perpendicular anisotropy was extracted and compared with that extracted by fitting torque measurements on the same film. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.