coercivity, exchange-biasing, number of stack, perpendicular magnetic anisotropy
Issue Date
2006-10
Publisher
IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC
Abstract
The dependencies of the stack number N on perpendicular exchange-biasing (H-ex) and coercivity (H-c) in [Pd/Co](N) and [Pd/Co (or CoFe)](N)/FeMn multilayers were investigated. With the help of the careful designs of layer structures, a series of samples whose surface anisotropies have the linear function N was prepared with constant bulk anisotropies. From the experimental data obtained, it was found that H-ex does not depend on the surface anisotropy, while H-c shows a strong dependence. Therefore, it is possible to tailor wide ranges of H-c (300-600 Oe) without varying H-ex (similar to 200 Oe) through the single control parameter stack number N.