Magnetization reversal in epitaxial exchange-biased IrMn/FeGa bilayers with anisotropy geometries controlled by oblique deposition.

We fabricated epitaxial exchange biased (EB) IrMn/FeGa bilayers by oblique deposition and systematically investigated their magnetization reversal. Two different configurations with the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy Ku parallel and perpendicular to the unidirectional anisotropy Keb were obtained by controlling the orientation of the incident FeGa beam during deposition. A large ratio of Ku/Keb was obtained by obliquely depositing the FeGa layer to achieve a large Ku while reducing the IrMn thickness to obtain a small Keb. Besides the previously reported square loops, conventional asymmetrically shaped loops, and one-sided and two-sided two-step loops, unusual asymmetrically shaped loops with a three-step magnetic transition for the descending branch and a two-step transition for the ascending branch and biased three-step loops were observed at various field orientations in the films of both IrMn (tIrMn=1.5 to 20 nm)/FeGa (10 nm) with Ku⊥ Keb and IrMn (tIrmn≤=2 nm)/FeGa (10 nm) with Ku// Keb. Considering the geometries of anisotropies, a model based on domain wall nucleation and propagation was employed to quantitatively describe the angular dependent behaviors of IrMn/FeGa bilayers. The biased three-step magnetic switching was predicted to take place when /Ku/> ε90°+Keb, where ε90° is the 90° domain wall nucleation energy, and the EB leads to the appearance of the unusual asymmetrically shaped hysteresis loops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]