Measurements of the ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic interfacial exchange energy in CO/CoO and Fe/FeF2 layers

Two measurement techniques, both relying on reversible rotations of the magnetization, have been used to determine the magnitude of the interfacial exchange energy (IEE) between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic (F/AF) layers. One technique is to use the anisotropic magnetoresistance to determine rotations of the magnetization away from the unidirectional easy axis, where the rotation is accomplished by applying external magnetic fields less than the effective F/AF exchange field. The second technique uses measurements of the ac susceptibility as a function of the angle between the ac field and the unidirectional exchange field. Both of the reversible process techniques result in values of the IEE larger (by as much as a factor of 10 in Co/CoO bilayers) than the traditional irreversible technique of measuring a shift in the hysteresis loop. The ac susceptibility technique was also used to measure one Fe/FeF2 bilayer. For this sample, the IEE values obtained by reversible and irreversible methods are equivalent, (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics, [S0021-8979(98)53611-0].