2017/09/28 by M. Ślęzak, T. Ślęzak, Ślęzak, M. +9
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Magnetic Properties and Applications #Magnetic properties of thin films #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Theoretical and Computational Physics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1709.09925
openalex publication_date 2017/09/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report an unusual, non-monotonous dependence of the exchange bias on the thickness of the ferromagnetic layer in a ferromagnet/antiferromagnet bilayer system. We show that in epitaxial CoO/Fe(110) bilayers, the evolution of the Fe magnetic anisotropy, which drives the thickness-induced in-plane spin-reorientation process, controls the interfacial CoO spin directions in the 0-90 degrees range and, consequently, drastically modifies the magnitude of the hysteresis loop shift and its dependence on the thickness of the Fe layer. Our results present a new recipe for tailoring the exchange bias and antiferromagnetic spin structure by utilizing the spin-reorientation process that occurs in a ferromagnetic layer adjacent to an antiferromagnetic layer.