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Interface roughness and exchange bias - coercivity ratio in Pulsed-DC magnetron sputtered NiFe/IrMn/CoFe exchange bias trilayers

R. M. ÖKSÜZOĞLU1,* , O. DENIZ1, M. YILDIRIM1

Affiliation

  1. University of Anadolu, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Materials Sciences and Engineering, İki Eylül Campus, 26555 Eskişehir, Turkey

Abstract

Ta/Ru/Ta/Ni81Fe19/Ir20Mn80/Co90Fe10 exchange bias multilayer was grown by using pulsed DC unbalanced magnetron sputtering technique. The deposition pulse frequency of the NiFe seed layer has been varied between 10 – 50 kHz, by keeping all parameters of the remaining layers constant. The evolutions of the grain size, texture, interface roughness and the exchange bias (Hex) and coercivity fields (Hc) including the Hex/Hc ratio have been systematically investigated. Grain size of the IrMn layer changes in the range of 8.9 nm–22 nm by constant layer thicknesses. The Hex is directly affected by the IrMn grain size for the bottom NiFe/IrMn interface, while it remains nearly insensitive to the grain size for the top IrMn/CoFe interface. The Hex at the NiFe/IrMn interface is largest if the grain size of the IrMn layer is same as the IrMn layer thickness. A direct relationship between the Hc and grain size values was not observed; however, the Hc is predominantly affected by the roughness of NiFe/IrMn and IrMn/CoFe interfaces. Results reveal that the texture and interface roughness plays an important role on the Hex/Hc ratio and deposition conditions for the ferromagnetic layer can be optimized using the variable deposition pulse frequency for a high Hex/Hc ratio in the investigated trilayer EB system..

Keywords

Magnetic anisotropy; Magnetic properties of monolayers and thin films; Grain size; Interface roughness; Pulsed DC Magnetron Sputtering.

Submitted at: Aug. 16, 2012
Accepted at: April 11, 2013

Citation

R. M. ÖKSÜZOĞLU, O. DENIZ, M. YILDIRIM, Interface roughness and exchange bias - coercivity ratio in Pulsed-DC magnetron sputtered NiFe/IrMn/CoFe exchange bias trilayers, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials Vol. 15, Iss. 3-4, pp. 204-210 (2013)