title: Creation of an antiferromagnetic exchange spring.
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 Co/NiO(001) 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.
authors.affiliation: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scholl
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liberati
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Arenholz
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ohldag
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stöhr