Universal time relaxation behavior of the exchange bias in ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic bilayers

Joonghoe Dho, Chi Wah Leung, M. G. Blamire

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The resilience of the exchange bias (Hex) in ferromagnet/antiferromagnet bilayers is generally studied in terms of repeated hysteresis loop cycling or by protracted annealing under reversed field (training and long-term relaxation, respectively). In this paper we report measurements of training and relaxation in NiFe films coupled with polycrystalline FeMn and epitaxial α-Fe2O3. We show that Hexsuppressed both by training and relaxation was partially recovered as soon as a field cycling for consecutive hysteresis loop measurement was stopped or the magnetization of the ferromagnet was switched back to the biased direction. In both cases we can model the observed logarithmic time relaxation behavior, and its film thickness and temperature dependence, in terms of a thermally activated reversal of the antiferromagnetic domain configuration to reduce the total magnetic energy.
Original languageEnglish
Article number033910
JournalJournal of Applied Physics
Volume99
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2006

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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