Negative rotatable anisotropy in IrMn/Cr/Co thin films

This work presents modifications of the magnetic properties of polycrystalline IrMn/Cr(tCr)/Co films where the Cr spacer thickness tCr was varied between 0.25 and 3 nm. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy, x-ray diffractometry and reflectivity, as well as x-ray absorption near-edge stru...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Nicolodi, Sabrina, Pereira, Luis Gustavo, Oliveira, Artur Harres de, Azevedo, Gustavo de Medeiros, Schmidt, Joao Edgar, García Aguilar, I., Souza Neto, N. M., Deranlot, Cyrile, Petroff, Frédéric, Geshev, Julian Penkov
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2012
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)
Repositorio:Repositório Institucional da UFRGS
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:www.lume.ufrgs.br:10183/104532
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10183/104532
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Propriedades magnéticas
Filmes finos
Anisotropia magnética
Transições magnéticas
Descripción
Sumario:This work presents modifications of the magnetic properties of polycrystalline IrMn/Cr(tCr)/Co films where the Cr spacer thickness tCr was varied between 0.25 and 3 nm. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy, x-ray diffractometry and reflectivity, as well as x-ray absorption near-edge structure were used for the structural characterization of the films; static magnetization curves as well as ferromagnetic resonance measurements were employed for the magnetic characterization. Decrease of the exchange-bias field and considerable and nonmonotonous enhancement of the coercivity with tCr were observed. The films’ anisotropy parameters were extracted from the experimental angular variations of the resonance field and from the hard-axis magnetization curves via numerical simulations. It was obtained that the two phenomena studied, namely, the exchange bias and rotatable anisotropy, have different origins. The rotatable anisotropy was ascribed to Cr interface coupled antiferromagnetically with the Co atoms. On the other hand, the occurrence of exchange bias, even for the film with the thickest Cr layer, was attributed to uncompensated spins at the topmost IrMn interface. Together with the significant increase with tCr of the rotatable anisotropy field, near saturation it is antiparallel to the external magnetic field.