Antiferromagnetism of CoO-NiO bilayers studied by XMLD spectroscopy

CoO-NiO epitaxial bilayer system grown on MgO(001) substrate is investigated using x-ray magnetic linear dichroism (XMLD) spectroscopy with varying CoO overlayer thickness. An analysis of the Ni L 2 edge XMLD spectra using anisotropic XMLD formulation within a two-domain model reveals that the Ni moments undergo a spin reorientation with increasing CoO thickness. Such a spin reorientation is attributed to the competing magnetic interactions at both the NiO film interfaces, suggesting the existence of a sharp horizontal domain wall separating the in-plane and out-of-plane NiO domains. Our study also demonstrates a possible way to investigate the spin-structure along the thickness within the same chemical structure using a model-based approach, in a noninvasive manner.