Abstract
The magnetic reversal behavior of a ferromagnet (FM) coupled through an FeMn antiferromagnet (AF) to a pinned ferromagnet has been investigated by polarized neutron reflectivity measurements. With FeMn as the AF layer it is found that there exists 90° interlayer coupling through this layer and that this plays a key role in the transfer of the exchange bias (EB) effect from the FM/AF interface to the AF/pinned-FM interface. Combined with Monte Carlo simulations, we demonstrate that the competition between the interlayer coupling and the anisotropy of the AF layer results in a control of the EB effect which has potential for device applications.
Highlights
If the bulk characteristics of the AF are important, this would imply that exchange bias (EB) in FM/ AF/FM trilayers could propagate from one AF/FM interface to the other[28]
polarized neutron reflectivity (PNR) measurements were performed on the Offspec and PolRef reflectometers at the ISIS neutron source of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory[33], and on the multipurpose reflectometer (MR) at the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS)[34]
Exchange Bias Effect pinned-NiFe2 layers reverse with the external field, or a minor loop, where only the NiFe1 layer reverses with the external field
Summary
The magnetic reversal behavior of a ferromagnet (FM) coupled through an FeMn antiferromagnet (AF) to a pinned ferromagnet has been investigated by polarized neutron reflectivity measurements. With FeMn as the AF layer it is found that there exists 90° interlayer coupling through this layer and that this plays a key role in the transfer of the exchange bias (EB) effect from the FM/AF interface to the AF/ pinned-FM interface. AF materials have become more and more important in modern spintronic applications by progressing from providing pinning for FM layers through to significant transport effects[21,24] This is further complemented by their robustness against magnetic field perturbations, and high operation frequency[22]. Combining the results from NSF and SF neutron reflectivities allows the magnitude and the direction of the magnetic induction to be determined i.e. a quantitative depth dependent vector magnetometer
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