Thickness and Temperature Dependence of Exchange Bias in Co/CoO Bilayers

Abstract

The effects of the ferromagnetic (FM) Co layer thickness on magnetic anisotropies and exchange bias (EB) properties of Co/CoO bilayers have been investigated by using ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) techniques. The temperature and thickness dependence of EB were studied in temperature range of 4-320 K. FMR and VSM measurements show that Co/CoO bilayers exhibit negative exchange bias just below the blocking temperature (T (B)). Room-temperature in-plane FMR measurements reveal that the Co layer was epitaxially grown on MgO substrate with four-fold magneto-crystalline symmetry. The data also show that the easy axis of magnetization is in the film plane and parallel to the aOE (c) 110 > crystallographic directions of MgO substrate in all samples.