Enhancement of coercive force in NiFe/FeRh-Ir bilayers grown on vicinal MgO(001) surfaces

Author

Nývlt, M. ; Katayama, T. ; Suzuki, Y. ; Ando, K. ; Yuasa, S. ; Otani, Y. ; Fukamichi, K.

Author_Institution

Electrotech. Lab., Tsukuba, Japan

Volume

35

Issue

5

fYear

1999

fDate

9/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

3862

Lastpage

3864

Abstract

Observations of enhanced coercive force in NiFe films exchange coupled with FeRh-Ir ordered alloy antiferromagnets epitaxially grown on MgO vicinal surfaces are reported. For NiFe thickness near 2.5 nm and miscut angle of 11.3 degrees the coercive force was increased by approx. 40% with respect to the flat NiFe/FeRh-Ir interface. The exact mechanism of this enhancement is not completely understood. However, it seems related to an increased number of pinning centers at the stepped interface. In addition to this effect we could also detect a usual step-induced uniaxial anisotropy. However, the effect of this uniaxial anisotropy on the coercive force was much weaker than the enhancement due to the steps at the NiFe/FeRh-Ir interface

Keywords

antiferromagnetic materials; coercive force; exchange interactions (electron); ferromagnetic materials; interface structure; iridium; iron alloys; magnetic anisotropy; magnetic multilayers; nickel alloys; rhodium alloys; 2.5 nm; NiFe-FeRh-Ir; NiFe/FeRh-Ir bilayers; antiferromagnets; coercive force enhancement; pinning centers; step-induced uniaxial anisotropy; stepped interface; vicinal MgO(001) surfaces; Anisotropic magnetoresistance; Antiferromagnetic materials; Coercive force; Couplings; Laboratories; Magnetization; Materials science and technology; Physics; Substrates; Temperature;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.800689

Filename

800689