铁磁/反铁磁双层膜系统中的交换偏置及矫顽场的温度特性

提出了一个讨论铁磁／反铁磁双层膜中的交换偏置及矫顽场温度特性的物理模型，该模型，假设铁磁层为具有单畴各向异性的单畴膜而反铁磁层由许多相互独立具有多晶各向异性的颗粒组成，其温度依赖性主要来源于系统态的热不稳定，包括反铁磁颗粒易轴取向的热涨落和相关磁学量的温度依赖性等。计算结果表明其交换偏置随温度的增加非线性地减少而其矫顽场在体阻截温度处达极大值，且其体阻截温度随反铁磁颗粒粒径的增加而增加。我们的计算结果和相关实验结果一致，通过本的讨论，我们建议通过铁磁膜耦合上大粒径硬反铁磁颗粒膜可获得高交换偏置、低矫顽场且近独立于温度的相关磁学器件。     

Temperature Dependence of Exchange Bias and Coercivity in Ferromagnetic Layer Coupled with Polycrystalline Antiferromagnetic Layer

The temperature dependence of exchange bias and coercivity in a ferromagnetic layer coupled with an antiferromagnetic layer is discussed. In this model, the temperature dependence comes from the thermal instability of the system states and the temperature modulated relative magnetic parameters. Morever, the thermal fluctuation of orientations of easy axes of antiferromagnetic grains at preparing has been considered. From the present model, the experimental results can be illustrated qualitatively for available magnetic parameters. Based on our discussion, we can conclude that soft ferromagnetic layer coupled by hard antiferromagnetic layer may be very applicable to design magnetic devices. In special exchange coupling, we can get high exchange bias and low coercivity almost independent of temperature for proper temperature ranges.     

铁磁/反铁磁双层膜中交换偏置及矫顽场的温度特性研究

讨论了铁磁-反铁磁双层膜中交换偏置和矫顽场随温度变化的关系。在本模型中,温度的依赖性来源于系统态的热激发以及相关磁学参量的温度依赖性。数值结果显示:低温下,交换偏置和矫顽场随温度的升高而减少,但是随着界面的交换耦合的增强或铁磁层各向异性的减少,其交换偏置变得平坦。随着温度的升高,交换偏置减少直至零;而矫顽场却达到峰值后再减为零。这些结果与实验结果定性一致。根据数值计算结果,可以预见软的铁磁层耦合上硬的反铁磁层,在恰当的交换耦合强度下,可构建具有大的交换偏置、小矫顽场;并在某温度区几乎不随温度变化的磁存贮器件.     

Spin-flop coupling and exchange anisotropy in ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic bilayers

By investigating the antiferromagnetic spin configuration, the exchange anisotropy and the interfacial spin-flop coupling in ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic (FM/AF) bilayers have been discussed in detail. The results show that there are four possible cases for the AF spins, namely the reversible recovering case, irreversible half-rotating case, irreversible reversing and irreversible half-reversing cases. Moreover, the realization of the cases strongly depends on interface quadratic coupling, interface spin-flop (biquadratic) coupling and AF thickness. The magnetic phase diagram in terms of the AF thickness t_AF, the interfacial bilinear coupling J₁ and the spin-flop coupling J₂ has been constructed. The corresponding critical parameters in which the exchange bias will occur or approach saturation have been also presented. Specially, the small spin-flop exchange coupling may result in an exchange bias without the interfacial bilinear exchange coupling. However, in general, the spin-flop exchange coupling can weaken or eliminate the exchange bias, but always enhances the coercivity greatly.     

外应力对铁磁/反铁磁体系交换偏置的影响及阶跃现象

采用能量极小原理及S-W模型研究了外应力对铁磁/反铁磁（FM/AFM）双层薄膜体系交换偏置的影响.不施加外磁场时,根据能量与铁磁层磁化强度方向之间的关系,指出体系存在单稳态和双稳态两种不同的状态,是由交换各向异性与单轴各向异性之间的竞争控制的.体系处于单稳态还是双稳态直接决定着交换偏置的角度依赖关系.分析磁化过程发现,外磁场沿内禀易轴及内禀难轴方向施加时,磁滞回线的一支转换场发生突变,而另一支转换场则保持不变,最终导致交换偏置场和矫顽场出现阶跃行为.数值计算表明,交换偏置场和矫顽场在阶跃点均具有较大的数值 关键词： 单稳态 双稳态 外应力     

铁磁/反铁磁双层膜系统中的磁畴动力学行为

比较了铁磁单层膜与铁磁/反铁磁双层膜结构中的磁畴演化行为, 发现由于反铁磁层膜对铁磁层膜的耦合作用使得系统的磁畴壁厚度、 磁畴壁等效质量、磁畴壁移动速度等发生了改变, 系统的矫顽场增强, 并出现了交换偏置场. 文章具体研究了反铁磁层耦合作用下其磁畴壁厚度、 等效质量以及磁畴壁移动速度等与反铁磁层的净磁化、 磁各向异性、界面耦合强度以及温度等的关系; 并研究了其对铁磁/反铁磁双层膜中的交换偏置场、矫顽场的影响. 进而 从磁畴结构的形成及其演化上揭示了铁磁/反铁磁双 层膜中出现交换偏置以及矫顽场增加的物理机制.     

铁磁/反铁磁双层膜系统中交换各向异性及其厚度依赖性

研究铁磁/反铁磁双层膜系统中交换偏置场和矫顽场的冷却磁场依赖性.结果表明,随着冷却磁场的增加,交换偏置场由负值向正值转变.在转变点附近,矫顽场有-个特别的增强,并达到最大值.结果同相关实验-致.研究铁磁层和反铁磁层厚度对交换偏置场和矫顽场的影响.发现,正负交换偏置场和矫顽场随着铁磁层厚度的增大而减小,但随反铁磁层厚度的变化关系复杂.在正交换偏置场的情形,随反铁磁层厚度的增大,交换偏置场增强,矫顽场减弱;在负交换偏置场的情形,随反铁磁层厚度的增大,交换偏置场减弱,矫顽场增强.     

The structure dependence of exchange bias in ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic bilayers

The structure dependence of exchange bias in ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic （FM/AF） bilayers has been investigated in detail by extending Slonczewski＇s ＇proximity magnetism＇ idea. Here three important parameters are discussed for FM/AF bilayers, i.e. interracial bilinear exchange coupling J1, interracial biquadratic （spin-flop） exchange coupling J2 and antiferromagnetic layer thickness tAF. The results show that both the occurrence and the variety of the exchange bias strongly depend on the above parameters. More importantly, the small spin-flop exchange coupling may result in an exchange bias without the interracial bilinear exchange coupling. However, in general, the spin-flop exchange coupling cannot result in the exchange bias. The corresponding critical parameters in which the exchange bias will occur or approach saturation are also presented.     

Interfacial roughness and temperature effects on exchange bias properties in coupled ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic bilayers

Monte Carlo simulations have been used to study the relationship between the exchange bias properties and the interface roughness in coupled ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic (FM/AFM) films of classical Heisenberg spins. It is shown that the variation of the exchange bias field versus the AFM anisotropy strongly depends on the FM/AFM interface. Unlike the flat interface, a non-monotonic dependence is observed for the roughest FM/AFM interface. This is explained by canted magnetic configurations at the FM/AFM interface, which appear after the first reversal due to the magnetic frustration. The temperature dependence of the exchange field is also dependent on the roughness. While the exchange field is roughly constant for the flat interface, a decrease is observed for the roughest interface as the temperature increases. This has been interpreted as a significant decrease of the effective coupling between the FM and the AFM due to the disordering of the moments at the FM/AFM interface because of the combination of magnetic frustration and temperature activation.     

Theoretical investigation of exchange bias

The exchange bias of bilayer magnetic films consisting of ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) layers in an uncompensated case is studied by use of the many-body Green's function method of quantum statistical theory. The effects of the layer thickness and temperature and the interfacial coupling strength on the exchange bias H_E are investigated. The dependence of the exchange bias H_E on the FM layer thickness and temperature is qualitatively in agreement with experimental results. When temperature varies, both the coercivity H_C and H_E decrease with the temperature increasing. For each FM thickness, there exists a least AFM thickness in which the exchange bias occurs, which is called pinning thickness.     

Exchange bias for ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic bilayers with the uniaxial anisotropy being misaligned with the exchange anisotropy

Using the principle of minimal energy and S-W model, the exchange bias for ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic bilayers has been investigated when the uniaxial anisotropy is misaligned with the exchange anisotropy. According to the relation between the energy of the bilayer and the orientation of ferromagnetic magnetization, it is found that the bilayer will be in the monostable state or bistable state when the external field is absent in the initial magnetization state. The monostable state or bistable state of the bilayer, which determines the angular dependence of exchange bias directly, is controlled by the competition between the exchange anisotropy and uniaxial anisotropy. When the applied field is parallel to the intrinsic easy axes and intrinsic hard axes, one of the switching fields of the hysteresis loop shows an abrupt change, while the other keep continuous by analyzing the magnetization reversal processes. Consequently, the exchange bias field and the coercivity will show a jump phenomenon. The numerical calculations indicate that both the magnitude and direction of the exchange anisotropy will significantly affect the angular dependence of exchange bias. The jump phenomenon of exchange bias is an intrinsic property of the bilayer, which is dependent on the interfacial exchange-coupling constant, the orientation of the exchange anisotropy, the thickness and uniaxial anisotropy constant of the ferromagnetic layer.     

非磁性掺杂下的铁磁/反铁磁系统中的交换偏置和矫顽场

采用Monte Carlo方法,分别讨论了在铁磁/反铁磁双层膜和铁磁/反铁磁单层混合膜中,掺入非磁性物质后,掺杂浓度对交换偏置以及矫顽场的影响.计算结果表明:随着掺杂浓度的增大,双层膜和单层膜交换偏置都有先增大后减小的现象,而其矫顽场则先减小后增大.在相同掺杂浓度下,对随机掺杂和规则掺杂两种不同掺杂方式的结果比较发现:铁磁/反铁磁双层膜中,规则掺杂下产生的交换偏置和矫顽场都得到了增强;对于单层混合膜,随机掺杂下的交换偏置更强,规则掺杂下的矫顽场更大.研究发现对于双层膜规则掺杂可明显地导致其磁滞回线的不对称性,说明铁磁/反铁磁系统中磁滞回线的不对称性与界面自旋微结构密切相关.     

Pulsed inductive microwave magnetometer response calculated for IrMn/FeNi bilayers

Micromagnetic simulations of a pulsed inductive microwave magnetometer (PIMM) experiment are performed using a well established model for exchange bias. The model (Interacting Grain Model) consists of ferromagnetic grains and antiferromagnetic grains with randomly distributed easy axes. A perfectly compensated interface between the ferromagnet and the antiferromagnet is assumed which leads to spin flop coupling. The antiferromagnetic layer is modelled as two totally antiparallel sublattices with a small intergrain exchange between each antiferromagnetic sublattice. Simulations of an experimental PIMM setup provide a shift of the minimum of the resonance frequency which is also observered experimentally.     

Numerical simulation of magnetization process in antiferromagnetic–ferromagnetic bilayer with compensated interface

The properties of antiferromagnetic (AFM)–ferromagnetic (FM) bilayer have been studied using self-consistent mean-field approximation for Heisenberg Hamiltonian. The perpendicular exchange coupling has been revealed in a bilayer with a compensated interface. For a uniform AFM film a symmetrical hysteresis loop has been calculated, because the transverse instability develops within the AFM film at certain critical value of external magnetic field. On the other hand, shifted hysteresis loop with a finite exchange bias field has been obtained for a non-uniform AFM film consisting of various AFM domains with perpendicular directions of the easy anisotropy axes.     

Coercivity enhancement in exchange biased systems driven by interfacial magnetic frustration

We report the temperature and cooling field dependence of the coercivity of exchange biased MnF(2)/Fe bilayers. When the antiferromagnetic surface is in a state of maximum magnetic frustration and the net exchange bias is zero, we observe a strong enhancement of the coercivity, which is proportional to the exchange coupling between the layers. Hence, the coercivity can be tuned in a reproducible and repeatable fashion in the same sample. We propose that a frustrated interface provides local energy minima which effectively pin the propagating domain walls in the ferromagnet, leading to an enhanced coercivity.     

A polycrystalline model for magnetic exchange bias

This work introduces a realistic model for the magnetic behavior of polycrystalline ferromagnet/antiferromagnet (FM/AF) systems with granular interfaces. It considers that, for strong enough interface exchange coupling, the AF layer breaks the adjacent FM into small-sized domains and that at the interface there exist grains with uncompensated spins interacting with the FM magnetizations; the classification of these grains as unstable (rotatable, responsible for a coercivity enhancement) or stable (adding to the bias) depends on both the anisotropy and the magnetic coupling with the adjacent FM. The distinctive characteristic of the model is that the effective rotatable anisotropy changes when the external magnetic field is varied resulting in a non-zero hard-axis coercivity, a feature commonly observed, though little understood and often ignored. The applicability of this model was checked on a typical magnetron-sputtered IrMn/Co bilayer and excellent agreement between experiment and simulation was achieved.     

Magnetic structures of exchange bias Ni/FeF2(1 1 0) interface

Electronic and magnetic structures of ferromagnetic (FM)/antiferromagnetic (AFM), Ni/FeF₂(1 1 0), with a compensated AFM interface are investigated by using the full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave method. We find that magnetic structures at the AFM interface are perturbed by a contact with the FM material, where the superexchange interaction through the interface F excites and induces a small net moment at the AFM interface. These results predicted may play an important role for explaining the exchange bias in this system, and rule out the exchange bias mechanisms with the spin-flop coupling and the magnetic moment reorientation.     

Exchange coupling mechanism for magnetization reversal and thermal stability of Co nanoparticles embedded in a CoO matrix

A model providing a semi-quantitative account of the magnetic behavior of Co nanoparticles embedded in a CoO matrix is presented. The results confirm that exchange coupling at the interface between ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) nanostructures could provide an extra source of magnetic anisotropy, leading to thermal stability of the FM nanoparticles. It is shown that perpendicular coupling between the AFM and FM moments may result in large coercivities. The energy barrier, which works against reversal is due to the AFM susceptibility anisotropy. The experimentally observed exchange bias is tentatively ascribed to pre-existing intrinsic canting of the AFM moments at the interface.     

交换偏置双层膜中的反铁磁自旋结构及其交换各向异性

研究了交换偏置双层膜中界面存在二次以及双二次交换耦合下反铁磁磁矩转动及其交换各向异性.结果表明，其反铁磁膜中的磁矩转动存在可逆“恢复行为”、不可逆“半转动行为”、不可逆“倒转行为”以及不可逆“半倒转行为”四种情形，四种情形的出现强烈地依赖于界面二次、双二次耦合以及反铁磁膜厚度.其中可逆恢复行为情况下，系统出现交换偏置，而不可逆的半转、半倒转以及倒转情形，系统不出现交换偏置.特别地,在界面处仅存在双二次耦合的情形下，其界面双二次耦合常数J₂≤0.1 σ关键词： 反铁磁自旋结构 交换各向异性 界面双二次耦合 交换偏置     

Depth magnetization profile of a perpendicular exchange coupled system by soft-x-ray resonant magnetic reflectivity

The magnetic profile across the interface of a perpendicular exchange coupled [NiO/CoO]3/Pt-Co/Pt(111) system is investigated. The magneto-optic Kerr effect reveals a strong coupling between the antiferromagnetic (AFM) oxide and the ferromagnetic (FM) Pt-Co layer, by an increasing coercivity and a rotation of the easy magnetization axis of the FM layer along the AFM spins. Soft x-ray resonant magnetic reflectivity is used to probe the spatial distribution of the out-of-plane magnetization inside the oxide above its ordering temperature. It extends over 1 nm and exhibits a change of sign.