Stress-induced exchange anisotropy of epitaxial (111) NiFe/NiFeMn

Abstract Epitaxial (1 1 1)NiFe/NiFeMn films were grown on (1 1 0) Mo/Al 2 O 3 (1 1 −2 0) structural templates by using MBE. Since the lattices mismatch between NiFe and Mo, the exchange field of NiFe/NiFeMn was induced by the stress in NiFe. The stress-induced exchange anisotropy resulted in dual shifted hysteresis loops. Because the lattice constant of NiFeMn is close to that of FeMn, the exchange field (135 Oe) of NiFe/NiFeMn is comparable to that of NiFe/FeMn.