| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1664912 | Thin Solid Films | 2015 | 5 Pages |
•Hysteresis properties of FeNi/TbCo films depend nonmonotonically on temperature.•Ti spacer changes significantly the hysteresis properties of exchange coupled FeNi layer.•Annealing changes hysteresis properties of exchange coupled FeNi layer irreversibly.•Ti spacer improves thermal stability of unidirectional anisotropy of FeNi layer.
Specific features of magnetization process in permalloy soft magnetic layer exchange coupled to an amorphous ferrimagnetic Tb-Co layer with strong in-plane magnetic anisotropy were investigated. Anomalous large variations in coercivity Hc and unidirectional anisotropy field He versus temperature T and annealing temperature Ta dependencies were observed. The changes in Hc and He were shown to be reversible for temperature range 5–300 K and irreversible for annealing temperatures 400–650 K. A critical role of a nonmagnetic spacer in the Нс(Т) and Нe(Т) formation were demonstrated. In conclusion simple explanation based on an assumption of thermally-induced variation of the interlayer magnetic boundary position and interdiffusion process was proposed.
