Symmetry-Breaking Induced Exchange Bias in Ferromagnetic Ni-Cu-Co and Ni-Fe-Co Sandwiches Grown on a Vicinal Cu(001) Surface

C Won, Y. Z. Wu, E. Arenholz, J. Choi, J. Wu, and Z. Q. Qiu

Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 077203 – Published 16 August 2007

Abstract

Ferromagnetic Ni-Cu-Co and Ni-Fe-Co sandwiches were grown epitaxially onto a vicinal Cu(001) substrate and investigated using magneto-optical Kerr effect and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism techniques. We find that the atomic steps of the vicinal surface break the magnetic reversal symmetry to induce an exchange bias in the Ni perpendicular magnetic hysteresis loop. The Ni exchange bias direction can be switched by changing the direction of the in-plane Co magnetization. In addition, the exchange bias can be tailored by changing the Cu or Fe spacer layer thickness.

Received 8 March 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.077203

Authors & Affiliations

C Won^1,2, Y. Z. Wu^1,3, E. Arenholz⁴, J. Choi¹, J. Wu¹, and Z. Q. Qiu¹

¹Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
²Department of Physics, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 130-701, Korea
³Surface Physics Lab (National Key Lab), Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
⁴Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

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Vol. 99, Iss. 7 — 17 August 2007

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