Thickness and ordering temperature of surface NiO/Ni systems

We estimate the thickness and ordering temperature of an antiferromagnetic and passivation surface oxide through exchange bias coupling. The surface NiO, which is generated through the exposure of a Ni/Cu(001) surface to oxygen, is taken as a model system on which to perform the estimation. Since no exchange bias is found in the surface NiO/Ni/Cu(001), we have built a sandwich structure of NiO/n ML Ni/10 ML Co/Cu(001) to measure the n dependence of exchange bias. With n ⩽ 2, a large exchange bias field is found above 300 K, which could be due to the direct contact between the oxides and the Co layer. With 3 ⩽ n ⩽ 6, a smaller exchange bias field is found with a blocking temperature of 190 K. This implies that the thickness of NiO is, at most, 3 ML. Discovering the thickness and ordering temperature of the surface NiO provides us to explore the potential applications by using surface NiO.