Effects of Antiferromagnetic Spin Rotation on Anisotropy of FerromagneticAntiferromagnetic.pdfVIP

Effects of Antiferromagnetic Spin Rotation on Anisotropy of Ferromagnetic/Antiferromagnetic Bilayers S. Urazhdin and C.L. Chien Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21218 In epitaxial (111) oriented Ni80Fe20/Fe50Mn50 bilayers, we separate two distinct behaviors: unidi- 4 rectional anisotropy (exchange bias) in thick Fe50Mn50 , and enhanced coercivity in thin Fe50Mn50 . 0 0 By measuring the magnetization response to a rotating magnetic field, we quantitatively determine 2 the relevant anisotropies, and demonstrate that the enhanced coercivity is related to the rotatable magnetic anisotropy of Fe50Mn50 . We also demonstrate the consequences of the anisotropy changes t with temperature. c O PACS numbers: 75.60.-d, 75.50.Ee, 75.30.Gw 4 ] Since its discovery almost 50 years ago [1], exchange- i c bias (EB) in ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic (F/AF) bi- s- layers has attracted much theoretical and experimental l attention, but complete understanding remains elusive. r t Uncompensated fixed AF spins at the interface [1], AF m domain walls either perpendicular [2] or parallel [3, 4] t. to the F/AF interface, and spin-flop in AF at the in- a terface with F [5] have been proposed as the domi- m nant mechanisms, each claiming support by some experi- d- ments [1, 6, 7, 8, 9]. Furthermore, the AF magnetic order n in proximity to F may be completely different from that o of the bulk AF [10], rendering some models oversimpli- c fi