Origin of asymmetric reversal modes in ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic multilayers

摘要

Experimentally an asymmetry of the reversal modes has been found in certainexchange bias systems. From a numerical investigation of the domain state modelevidence is gained that this effect depends on the angle between the easy axisof the antiferromagnet and the applied magnetic field. Depending on this anglethe ferromagnet reverses either symmetrically, e. g. by a coherent rotation onboth sides of the loop, or the reversal is asymmetric with a non uniformreversal mode for the ascending branch, which may even yield a zeroperpendicular magnetization.