corner
corner
APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. B » Volume 68 » Issue 18
< Previous Article | Next Article >

Phys. Rev. B 68, 184418 (2003) [7 pages]

Induced fourfold anisotropy and bias in compensated NiFe/FeMn double layers

Download: PDF (335 kB) Buy this article Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

T. Mewes
Department of Physics, 1077 Smith Laboratory, Ohio State University, 174 W 18th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA

B. Hillebrands
Fachbereich Physik and Forschungsschwerpunkt MINAS, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, Erwin Schrödinger Strasse 56, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany

R. L. Stamps*
School of Physics, M013, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia

Received 11 July 2003; published 20 November 2003

A vector spin model is used to show how frustrations within a multisublattice antiferromagnet such as FeMn can lead to fourfold magnetic anisotropies acting on an exchange-coupled ferromagnetic film. Possibilities for the existence of exchange bias are examined and shown to exist for the case of weak chemical disorder at the interface in an otherwise perfect structure. A sensitive dependence on interlayer exchange is found for anisotropies acting on the ferromagnet through the exchange coupling, and we show that a wide range of anisotropies can appear even for a perfect crystalline structure with an ideally flat interface.

© 2003 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.68.184418
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevB.68.184418
PACS:
75.70.-i, 75.30.Gw, 75.40.Mg

*Electronic address: stamps@physics.uwa.edu.au

 
< Previous Article | Next Article >