Monte-Carlo modeling of exchange bias properties in amorphous magnets

Abstract We explore the effect of interfacial disorder on exchange bias properties of a soft ferromagnet with a negligible intrinsic anisotropy exchange coupled to a hard amorphous magnet with a random magnetic anisotropy, based on an extensive Monte Carlo simulation. The interfacial disorder is introduced by using a '± J ’' model. As compared to the conventionally crystalline ferromagnet/antiferromagnet bilayers, pronounced values and sign inversion in the exchange field are obtained at low temperature after cooling even under a weak field. However, the coercivity in the amorphous system not only shows smaller values, but also exhibits an opposite trend. Different from the ordered crystalline systems, the intrinsic properties of the Harris–Plischke–Zuckermann Hamiltonian rather than the domain structure determine the coercive fields and the shapes of hysteresis loops with different temperatures and cooling fields in the random magnetic anisotropy model, and hence the exchange bias. This theoretical work opens a new avenue for magnetism of the exchange bias and for its applications.