Rotational hysteresis of torque curves in polycrystalline ferro/antiferromagnetic systems

Rotational hysteresis of ferromagnetic (F)/antiferromagnetic (AF) exchange coupled systems was studied by using NiFe/IrMn, NiFe/FeMn, and NiFe/NiMn samples sputter deposited under almost the same conditions, although the sample of NiFe/NiMn was annealed later to obtain the antiferromagnetic phase for the NiMn layer. The rotational hysteresis of each sample exhibited quite a different feature from each other, especially in the rotational hysteresis–magnetization angle curves. The NiFe/IrMn bilayer showed a dip at around the antiparallel direction to the applied field direction during sample preparation (pinning direction), while the NiFe/NiMn bilayer exhibited a large peak in that direction. The NiFe/FeMn bilayer did not show any noticeable structure in the rotational hysteresis–magnetization curve. Based on the analysis of those data done by using the model recently proposed by the authors, the following was inferred: (1) The distribution of the anisotropy easy axes of IrMn of the NiFe/IrMn bilayer grains is limited in some range of angles around the pinning direction. Some direct exchange coupling exists between the IrMn grains. (2) The distribution of the anisotropy easy axes of FeMn grains of the NiFe/FeMn bilayer is almost random and the direct exchange coupling between the FeMn grains is negligible. (3) In the NiFe/NiMn bilayer, substantial strength of direct exchange coupling exists between some of the grains which switch and the ones which do not switch with the rotation of the magnetization of the NiFe layer, although the volume fraction of the former is much smaller than the latter.