Influence of milling time on the structural and exchange bias of CoO and Co–Co oxide nanocomposite systems

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effect of milling time on the structural and exchange bias properties of two exchange-coupled nanocomposite systems that were prepared by mechanical milling. The first system consists of an antiferromagnet (CoO), named CoO-series and the second one consists of a mixture of a ferromagnet with an antiferromagnet (10 wt% Co + CoO), called MIX-series and both systems were milled for various times. Upon field cooling, going through low temperature (5 K), hysteresis loop shifts, coercivity enhancements, and saturation magnetization reductions were observed as milling time increases. Noticeable enhancements of exchange bias (270 Oe) and coercivity (1039 Oe) of the CoO-series after 10 h of milling, in comparison with those of unmilled ones (16 Oe) and (136 Oe) respectively, showed that the main structural changes occurred at the first milling hours. Introduction of large structural defects, the formation of cobalt and crystallite size reduction, ensuing from milling, can be the causes of an increase in exchange bias and coercivity. On the other hand, ferromagnet-antiferromagnet exchange coupling induces by milling is another origin for exchange bias. The results show that ferromagnet-antiferromagnet ratio and/or crystallite sizes play key roles in exchange bias enhancement. So that milled CoO-series with lower Co content in comparison with that of MIX-series and finer crystallites have considerable higher exchange bias.