Creation of an Antiferromagnetic Exchange Spring

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Abstract
We present evidence for the creation of an exchange spring in an antiferromagnet due to exchange coupling to a ferromagnet. X-ray magnetic linear dichroism spectroscopy on single crystal shows that a partial domain wall is wound up at the surface of the antiferromagnet when the adjacent ferromagnet is rotated by a magnetic field. We determine the interface exchange stiffness and the antiferromagnetic domain wall energy from the field dependence of the direction of the antiferromagnetic axis, the antiferromagnetic pendant to a ferromagnetic hysteresis loop. The existence of a planar antiferromagnetic domain wall, proven by our measurement, is a key assumption of most exchange bias models.

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