Investigation of interlayer exchange coupling in ferro-, antiferro-, ferromagnetic trilayers [Elektronische Ressource] / Christian Schanzer

Lehrstuhl fur¨ Experimentalphysik E21Investigation of interlayer exchangecoupling in ferro-/antiferro-/ferromagnetictrilayersChristian SchanzerVollst¨andiger Abdruck der von der Fakult¨at fur¨ Physik der Technischen Universit¨atMunc¨ hen zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades einesDoktors der Naturwissenschaftengenehmigten Dissertation.Vorsitzender: Univ.-Prof. Dr. M. KleberPrufer¨ der Dissertation:1. Univ.-Prof. Dr. P.B¨oni2. Univ.-Prof. Dr. R. GrossDie Dissertation wurde am 20.10.2005 bei der Technischen Universitat¨ Munc¨ hen ein-gereicht und durch die Fakult¨at fur¨ Physik am 28.03.2006 angenommen.3Thesis OutlineInterfaces between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic layers have shown a varietyof intriguing features like unidirectional anisotropy leading to exchange bias, enhance-ment of coercivity, rotational hysteresis etc.. When an antiferromagnet is sandwichedbetween two ferromagnetic layers a nonvanishing exchange interaction between thetwo ferromagnets has been observed. Theoretically, the existence of a non-collinearmagnetic structure in the antiferromagnetic spacer has been proposed. Previous inves-tigations deduced a linear dependence of the turn-angle between the magnetization ofthe ferromagnetic layers on the thickness of the antiferromagnet from bulk magneti-zation measurements. These experiments provided indirect evidence for a spiraling ofthe moments within the antiferromagnetic spacer.