Temperature-induced sign change of the magnetic interlayer coupling in Ni/Ni{sub 25}Mn{sub 75}/Ni trilayers on Cu{sub 3}Au(001)

Journal Article · Thu May 07 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4919597· OSTI ID:22403009

Shokr, Y. A.; Zhang, B.; Sandig, O.; Kuch, W. ^[1]; Erkovan, M. ^[2]; Wu, C. -B. ^[3]

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1. Institut für Experimentalphysik, Freie Universität Berlin, Arnimallee 14, 14195 Berlin (Germany)
2. Nanoscience and Nanoengineering Department, Sakarya University, 54687 Sakarya (Turkey)
3. Department of Physics, Chung Yuan Christian University, Chungli 32023, Taiwan (China)

We investigated the magnetic interlayer coupling between two ferromagnetic (FM) Ni layers through an antiferromagnetic (AFM) Ni{sub 25}Mn{sub 75} layer and the influence of this coupling on the exchange bias phenomenon. The interlayer coupling energy of an epitaxial trilayer of 14 atomic monolayers (ML) Ni/45 ML Ni{sub 25}Mn{sub 75}/16 ML Ni on Cu{sub 3}Au(001) was extracted from minor-loop magnetization measurements using in-situ magneto-optical Kerr effect. The interlayer coupling changes from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic when the temperature is increased above 300 K. This sign change is interpreted as the result of the competition between an antiparallel Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY)-type interlayer coupling, which dominates at high temperature, and a stronger direct exchange coupling across the AFM layer, which is present only below the Néel temperature of the AFM layer.

• OSTI ID: 22403009
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 117, Issue 17; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ANTIFERROMAGNETISM
ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY
COPPER
COUPLING
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
EPITAXY
GOLD
INTERMETALLIC COMPOUNDS
KERR EFFECT
LAYERS
MAGNETIZATION
MANGANESE
NICKEL
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE