Ferromagnetic-resonance field shift in an exchange-biased CoO/Ni 80Fe 20 bilayer

Abstract

The temperature dependence of the ferromagnetic resonance field shift has been investigated in a CoO/Permalloy bilayer between room temperature and 4 K. The field shift is found to consist of two components: a unidirectional exchange-bias field shift and a uniaxial anisotropic field shift. These field shifts are shown to be equal to the conventional exchange bias and anisotropy fields, provided the rigid spin rotation hypothesis is correct. We have also measured the temperature variation of the exchange bias and the magnetic anisotropy fields from hysteresis loops obtained from SQUID-magnetometry, and found incomplete agreement with the parameters obtained from the ferromagnetic resonance spectra. Analogies with spin-glass phenomena indicate that this incomplete agreement results from the breakdown of the rigid rotation model (or equivalently, the surface anisotropy model) results due to the large rotation angles encountered in a magnetic moment reversal. Notwithstanding, we show that the results of rotating the sample by 180° in the plane of the film yields changes in the resonance field shift which are in agreement with hysteresis loop parameters. A connection between results observed in exchange bias materials and those in spin-glass materials is suggested.