Effect of Exchange Bias on Magnetic Anisotropies in Fe/CoO Bilayers

Abstract

We report on the structural and magnetic properties of exchange-biased Fe/CoO bilayers grown on MgO (001) substrates by using rf-sputtering. For varying Fe thicknesses (4 nm, 10 nm, and 20 nm) the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) spectra of bilayers have been studied as a function of temperature at X-band frequency. The resonance lines of FMR spectra have a relatively small linewidth indicating a high crystallinity of the Fe films. The room-temperature FMR data also show that the easy axis of Fe is in the film plane and parallel to the [110] crystallographic direction of MgO substrate. In addition, M versus H loops were recorded at selected temperatures by using VSM magnetometry. The VSM measurements indicate that the Fe thickness and temperature dependence of exchange-bias properties are in good agreement with the previous results on similar systems. However, the blocking temperature of the exchange-biased system is strongly reduced compared to the bulk values. This reduction in the blocking temperature is explained by both the thickness and superstoichiometric structure of antiferromagnetic CoO layer.