Role of antiferromagnetic bulk exchange coupling on exchange-bias propagation

We report a numerical study on the propagation behaviors of exchange-bias (EB) field (HE) and coercivity (HC) influenced by the magnitude of antiferromagnetic (AFM) bulk exchange coupling (JAF) in ferromagnetic (FM)/AFM/FM trilayers. The HE propagation for the AFM thin spacer with different JAF may encourage or discourage EB. On the contrary, the HC propagation only increases HC, however, this increment shrinks for large JAF. This theoretical work deepens our understanding of the EB effect in magnetic multilayers and provides a picture to optimize the EB properties through choosing a proper AFM material.