Experimental evidences and driving mechanisms for anisotropic misalignments in exchange coupled systems

Experimental evidence for misalignments between F anisotropy axes, AF anisotropy axes and the exchange bias field direction is shown in a CoFe/Ni<Subscript>0.38</Subscript>O<Subscript>0.62</Subscript> system. The angular dependence of the remanent magnetization, the exchange bias field and the coercive field is studied as a function of the diluted NiO thickness. The exchange coupling leads to misalignments between the applied field during growth, the exchange bias field and the coercive field directions. It shows that two different interfacial spin frustrations are present, corresponding to pinned and unpinned spins contributions of the diluted NiO. Copyright EDP Sciences, SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011