Perpendicular exchange-bias induced by a discontinuous Ru layer in Co _(90)Fe_(10)/Ru/Co_(90)Fe_(10)/FeMn multilayers

摘要

A series of Co_(90)Fe_(10)/Ru/Co_(90)Fe _(10)/FeMn multilayers were fabricated by DC magnetron sputtering. Our results show that the in-plane and perpendicular exchange-bias fields H _(ex) of the multilayers can be controlled by the continuity of the Ru layer. Increasing the continuity of the Ru layer increases the in-plane H ex and decreases the perpendicular one. When the thickness of the Ru layer is 0.5 nm, the perpendicular Hex reaches as high as 682 Oe. The perpendicular exchange-bias induced by a discontinuous underlayer may be applied in future perpendicular anisotropic spin valves or magnetic tunnel junctions.