The structural and magnetic characterization of molecular-beam-epitaxy-grown FeMn-NiFe exchange-biased bilayers

Structural and magnetic characterizations have been performed on NiFe-FeMn exchange-biased bilayers grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The growth of the films showed high-quality epitaxy with well-defined flat interface between the layers. Magnetic measurements confirmed that the films showed not only a comparable exchange anisotropy field (H/sub ex/) to that of sputtered films but also a lowered threshold thickness of 2 nm at which H/sub ex/ vanishes for the FeMn.