TY  - JOUR
AU  - Kohn, A.
AU  - Kovács, A.
AU  - Fan, R.
AU  - McIntyre, G. J.
AU  - Ward, R. C. C.
AU  - Goff, J. P.
TI  - The antiferromagnetic structures of IrMn$_{3}$ and their influence on exchange-bias
JO  - Scientific reports
VL  - 3
SN  - 2045-2322
CY  - London
PB  - Nature Publishing Group
M1  - FZJ-2015-03895
SP  - 2045 - 2322
PY  - 2013
AB  - We have determined the magnetic structures of single-crystal thin-films of IrMn3 for the crystallographic phases of chemically-ordered L12, and for chemically-disordered face-centred-cubic, which is the phase typically chosen for information-storage devices. For the chemically-ordered L12 thin-film, we find the same triangular magnetic structure as reported for the bulk material. We determine the magnetic structure of the chemically-disordered face-centred-cubic alloy for the first time, which differs from theoretical predictions, with magnetic moments tilted away from the crystal diagonals towards the face-planes. We study the influence of these two antiferromagnetic structures on the exchange-bias properties of an epitaxial body-centred-cubic Fe layer showing that magnetization reversal mechanism and bias-field in the ferromagnetic layer is altered significantly. We report a change of reversal mechanism from in-plane nucleation of 90° domain-walls when coupled to the newly reported cubic structure towards a rotational process, including an out-of-plane magnetization component when coupled to the L12 triangular structure.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000322956000005
DO  - DOI:10.1038/srep02412
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/201601
ER  -