Complex Study of Magnetization Reversal Mechanisms of FeNi/FeMn Bilayers Depending on Growth Conditions

Christina Gritsenko; Vladimir Lepalovskij; Mikhail Volochaev; Vladimir Komanický; Aleksandr Gorkovenko; Hanna Pazniak; Maria Gazda; Nikolai Andreev; Valeria Rodionova

doi:10.3390/nano12071178

Complex Study of Magnetization Reversal Mechanisms of FeNi/FeMn Bilayers Depending on Growth Conditions

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 Apr 1;12(7):1178. doi: 10.3390/nano12071178.

Authors

Christina Gritsenko¹, Vladimir Lepalovskij², Mikhail Volochaev³, Vladimir Komanický⁴, Aleksandr Gorkovenko², Hanna Pazniak⁵, Maria Gazda⁶, Nikolai Andreev^{1

7}, Valeria Rodionova¹

Affiliations

¹ Research and Education Center "Smart Materials and Biomedical Applications", Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Gaidara str., 6, 236041 Kaliningrad, Russia.
² Solid State Magnetism Department, Institute of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Ural Federal University, 620002 Yekaterinburg, Russia.
³ Kirensky Institute of Physics, Federal Research Center KSC SB RAS, Akademgorodok 50/38, 660036 Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
⁴ Institute of Physics, Faculty of Science, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University, Park Angelinum 9, 040 01 Kosice, Slovakia.
⁵ Faculty of Physics and Center for Nanointegration (CENIDE), University of Duisburg-Essen, 47057 Duisburg, Germany.
⁶ Faculty of Applied Physics and Mathematics, Gdansk University of Technology, Narutowicza 11/12, 80233 Gdansk, Poland.
⁷ Materials Science and Metallurgy Shared Use Research and Development Center, National University of Science and Technology MISiS, 119049 Moscow, Russia.

Abstract

Magnetization reversal processes in the NiFe/FeMn exchange biased structures with various antiferromagnetic layer thicknesses (0-50 nm) and glass substrate temperatures (17-600 °C) during deposition were investigated in detail. Magnetic measurements were performed in the temperature range from 80 K up to 300 K. Hysteresis loop asymmetry was found at temperatures lower than 150 K for the samples with an antiferromagnetic layer thickness of more than 10 nm. The average grain size of FeMn was found to increase with the AFM layer increase, and to decrease with the substrate temperature increase. Hysteresis loop asymmetry was explained in terms of the exchange spring model in the antiferromagnetic layer.

Keywords: AFM grain size; exchange bias; exchange spring; hysteresis loop asymmetry; magnetization reversal; substrate temperature.

Grants and funding

APVV-20-0324/Slovak Research and Development Agency