The structure dependence of exchange bias in ferromagnetic / antiferromagnetic bilayers

The structure dependence of exchange bias in ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic (FM/AF) bilayers has been investigated in detail by extending Slonczewski's 'proximity magnetism' idea. Here three important parameters are discussed for FM/AF bilayers, i.e. interfacial bilinear exchange coupling J1, interfacial biquadratic (spin-flop) exchange coupling J2 and antiferromagnetic layer thickness tAF. The results show that both the occurrence and the variety of the exchange bias strongly depend on the above parameters. More importantly, the small spin-flop exchange coupling may result in an exchange bias without the interfacial bilinear exchange coupling. However, in general, the spin-flop exchange coupling cannot result in the exchange bias. The corresponding critical parameters in which the exchange bias will occur or approach saturation are also presented.