Highly asymmetric magnetic behavior in exchange biased systems induced by noncollinear field cooling

A detailed study of the angular dependence of the magnetization reversal in polycrystalline ferromagnetic (FM)/antiferromagnetic Co/IrMn bilayers with noncollinear FM and unidirectional anisotropies shows a peculiar asymmetric magnetic behavior. The anisotropy configuration is set via a field coolin...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Jimenez, Erika, Camarero, Julio|||0000-0003-0078-7280, Sort, Jordi|||0000-0003-1213-3639, Nogués, Josep|||0000-0003-4616-1371, Hoffmann, Axel, Miranda, R., Teran, F. J., Perna, Paolo, Garcia-Martin, J. M., Dieny, Bernard
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2009
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:116003
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/116003
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1063/1.3236768
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Magnetic anisotropy
Ferromagnetism
Magnetization reversals
Exchange interactions
Coercive force
Magnetic hysteresis
Antiferromagnetism
Atomic force microscopy
Magnetic domains
Polycrystals
Descripción
Sumario:A detailed study of the angular dependence of the magnetization reversal in polycrystalline ferromagnetic (FM)/antiferromagnetic Co/IrMn bilayers with noncollinear FM and unidirectional anisotropies shows a peculiar asymmetric magnetic behavior. The anisotropy configuration is set via a field cooling (FC) procedure with the magnetic field misaligned with respect to the easy magnetization direction of the FM layer. Different magnetization reversal modes are observed for either positive or negative angles with respect to the FC direction. The angular dependence of both coercivity and exchange bias also clearly displays the broken symmetry of the induced noncollinearity. Our findings are reproduced with a modified Stoner-Wohlfarth model including the induced anisotropy configuration. Our results highlight the importance of the relative angle between anisotropies in exchange bias systems, opening a new path for the tailoring of their magnetic properties.