Exchange Bias in Annealed [Pt/Co]/NiFe Systems

Exchange bias without antiferromagnetic layer was observed in systems consisting of two exchange coupled ferromagnetic materials: (Pt/Co)
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multilayer (with out-of-plane anisotropy) and permalloy, NiFe, (with in-plane anisotropy). We investigated the influence of various parameters on this phenomenon: Pt buffer layer thickness, number of repeats in the multilayer, thickness of the NiFe layer. Annealing yields a doubling in the magnitude of the loop shift as a result of an improved texture and mosaicity of the films