Enhancing the blocking temperature of perpendicular-exchange biased Cr2O3 thin films using buffer layers

In this study, we investigated the effect of buffer layers on the blocking temperature (TB) of perpendicular exchange bias of thin Cr2O3/Co exchange coupled films with a Ru spacer and revealed a high TB of 260 K for 20-nm-thick Cr2O3 thin films. By comparing the TB values of the 20-nm-thick Cr2O3 films on Pt and α-Fe2O3 buffers, we investigated the lattice strain effect on the TB. We show that higher TB values can be obtained using an α-Fe2O3 buffer, which is likely because of the lattice strain-induced increase in Cr2O3 magnetocrystalline anisotropy.