Temperature dependent exchange bias effect in polycrystalline BiFeO<Subscript>3</Subscript>/FM (FM  =  NiFe, Co) bilayers

Extensive studies on the temperature (T) dependent exchange bias effect were carried out in polycrystalline BiFeO<Subscript>3</Subscript>(BFO)/NiFe and BFO/Co bilayers. In contrast to single-crystalline BFO/ferromagnet (FM) bilayers, sharp increase of the exchange bias field (H <Subscript> E </Subscript>) below 50 K were clearly observed in both of these two bilayers. However, when T is higher than 50 K, H <Subscript> E </Subscript> increases with T and decreases further when T is larger than 230 K (for BFO/NiFe) or 200 K (for BFO/Co), which is similar to those reported in single-crystalline BFO/FM bilayers. After the exploration of magnetic field cooling, the temperature dependent exchange bias can be explained considering two contributions from both the interfacial spin-glass-like frustrated spins and the polycrystalline grains in the BFO layer. Moreover, obvious exchange bias training effect can be observed at both 5 K and room temperature and the corresponding results can be well fitted based on a recently proposed theoretical model taking into account the energy dissipation of the AFM layer. Copyright EDP Sciences, SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013