Ferromagnetic resonance and X-ray reflectivity studies of pulsed DC magnetron sputtered NiFe/IrMn/CoFe exchange bias

Abstract

Ferromagnetic resonance and X-ray specular reflectivity measurements were performed on Ni81Fe19/Ir20Mn80/ Co90Fe10 exchange bias trilayers, which were grown using the pulsed-DC magnetron sputtering technique on Si(100)/SiO2(1000 nm) substrates, to investigate the evolution of the interface roughness and exchange bias and their dependence on the NiFe layer thickness. The interface roughness values of the samples decrease with increasing NiFe thickness. The in-plane ferromagnetic resonance measurements indicate that the exchange bias field and the peak-to-peak line widths of the resonance curves are inversely proportional to the NiFe thickness. Furthermore, both the exchange bias field and the interface roughness show almost the same dependence on the NiFe layer thickness. The out-of plane angular dependent measurements indicate that the exchange bias arises predominantly from a variation of exchange anisotropy due to changes in interfacial structure. The correlation between the exchange bias and the interface roughness is discussed.