Reorientation of the magnetization in compensated F/AF bilayers

Summary form only given. We study interface effects in the magnetic phases of a ferromagnetic film grown on a compensated antiferromagnetic substrate. We consider ferromagnetic films with either uniaxial or crystalline four-fold anisotropy. For uniaxial ferromagnetic films, we find that the frustration induced by the interface exchange leads to a reorientation of the magnetization only if the strength of the interface field is beyond a certain threshold value which is thickness dependent. For ferromagnetic films with four-fold crystalline anisotropy the reorientation of the magnetization occurs for any value the interface exchange field strength. For antiferromagnetic substrates with large uniaxial anisotropy field, the reorientation of the magnetization produces minor changes in the antiferromagnetic arrangement of the spins in each plane. The theoretical model is applied to Fe/FeF/sub 2/ and Fe/MnF/sub 2/ bilayers.