Ferromagnetic resonance in gigahertz magneto-impedance of multilayer systems

The effect of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) on magneto-impedance (MI) of multilayer thin films is investigated. We present impedance measurements of an insulated multilayer film as a function of the applied magnetic field both in the plane of the sample and perpendicular to it, for frequencies from 300 kHz to 3 GHz. These measurements have been made using RF techniques, and the data have been treated using high-frequency models in order to minimize the contribution to the impedance of the test fixture. The results confirm that the FMR dominates the MI behavior at high frequency, allowing to reach higher MI ratios than those achieved at the quasistatic regime. However, the broad resonance lines cause a considerable drop of the sensitivity of the curves, and therefore the optimum operation frequency of GMI devices lays in the sub-GHz range.