2005/08/19 by Elke Arenholz, Kai Liu
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Magnetic Properties and Applications #Magnetic Properties and Synthesis of Ferrites #Magnetic properties of thin films #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.2058207
published as Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 132501 (2005) · 14 pages, 3 figures, to appear in APL
arxiv created 2005/08/19 · openalex publication_date 2005/09/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
A detailed study of exchange-biased Fe∕MnF2 bilayers using magneto-optical Kerr effect shows that the magnetization reversal occurs almost fully through domain wall nucleation and propagation for external fields parallel to the exchange-bias direction. For finite angles ϕ between bias and external field, the magnetization is aligned perpendicular to the cooling-field direction for a limited field range for decreasing fields. For external fields perpendicular to the bias direction, the magnetization aligns with the cooling-field direction for descending and ascending fields before fully reversing. The field range for which the magnetization is close to perpendicular to the external field can be estimated using a simple effective-field model.