Improvement of crystallinity and exchange bias field in reverse type Ni-Fe/FeMn bilayers using Si/Ni-Fe composite type of underlayers

Author

Nakagawa, Shigeki ; Nishimura, Kosuke ; Shimizu, Yutaka ; Naoe, Masahiko

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys. Electron., Tokyo Inst. of Technol., Japan

Volume

35

Issue

5

fYear

1999

fDate

9/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2970

Lastpage

2972

Abstract

Composite-type Si/Ni-Fe underlayers were examined to improve crystallinity and exchange bias characteristics of the reverse-type exchange coupled layers, such as [FeMn/Ni-Fe] bilayers. A Si underlayer promoted (111) texture of fcc crystallites in the initial growth region of Ni-Fe layer deposited on it. FeMn layers deposited on the Si/Ni-Fe bilayered underlayer exhibited excellent (111) texture of fcc crystallites. The multilayer film with Si underlayer revealed a large exchange coupling field H_ex to the Ni-Fe films deposited on it after annealing in an applied field of 500 Oe. It was found that the exchange field H_ex of the film with a 50 Å-thick Si underlayer revealed a large value of about 300 Oe. The Ni-Fe layer between Si and FeMn layers could possess a large exchange coupling field

Keywords

crystallites; exchange interactions (electron); iron alloys; magnetic multilayers; manganese alloys; nickel alloys; silicon; texture; (111) texture; 50 A; Ni-Fe/FeMn bilayers; Si; Si-NiFe-FeMn-NiFe; Si/Ni-Fe composite-type underlayers; Si/Ni-Fe/FeMn; crystallinity; exchange bias field; fcc crystallites; multilayer film; reverse-type exchange coupled layers; Annealing; Antiferromagnetic materials; Crystallization; Giant magnetoresistance; Helium; Iron; Magnetic multilayers; Nonhomogeneous media; Semiconductor films; Spin valves;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.801050

Filename

801050