Azimuthal angular dependent hysteresis loops of Fe₅₀Mn₅₀/Ni₈₁Fe₁₉ bilayers grown under a magnetic field

The azimuthal angular dependence of the vectorial hysteresis loops in the Fe₅₀Mn₅₀(AF)/Ni₈₁Fe₁₉(F) bilayer grown under a magnetic field was investigated using a combination of vectorial magneto-optic Kerr effect and model calculation. From a comparison of the experimental and calculation results, it is found that the AF easy axis is not parallel with but rotated by about 20° away from the applied magnetic field during the sample growth. Moreover, the transverse loop at the AF easy axis does not vanish but displays an open full circle (i.e., magnetization changes sign between decreasing and increasing field branches for the full hysteresis measurement). Our model calculation reveals that they are reminiscent of the non-collinear uniaxial and unidirectional anisotropies. Specifically, the angular dependence of the transverse hysteresis is well reproduced with our model calculation taking non-collinear magnetic anisotropies into account. Coercivity determined from the longitudinal loops, on the other hand, is found to be nonzero and comparatively large at all azimuthal angles. This is in stark contrast with previous results regarding FeMn/NiFe bilayers field-cooled after sample growth. Neither domain wall nor incoherent magnetic rotation in the F layer is likely to be responsible for this coercivity discrepancy between theory and experiments. Apart from the uniaxial F and unidirectional AF-F anisotropies, we suggest that the F rotatable anisotropy equivalent of 40% to 60% of the interfacial coupling energy should be taken into account to properly address the coercivity enhancement in the FeMn/NiFe bilayer grown under a magnetic field.