Thermally activated reversal in exchange-coupled structures

Summary form only given. Recently much attention has been paid to the thermally activated reversal of an antiferromagnetic (AFM) layer which can influence the operation of various information storage devices, such as spin-valves and spin-tunnel junctions, although it occurs at a much higher field than that at which the device operates. In this article, we report our results on the thermally activated magnetisation reversal of the ferromagnetic (FM) layer in IrMn/CoFe exchange-coupled bilayers with different thickness of AFM layer, d/sub AFM/.