NIO EXCHANGE BIAS LAYERS GROWN BY DIRECT ION-BEAM SPUTTERING OF A NICKEL-OXIDE TARGET

A new processes for fabricating NiO exchange bias layers has been deve loped, The process involves the direct ion beam sputtering (IBS) of a NiO target. The process is simpler than other deposition techniques fo r producing NiO buffer layers, and facilitates the deposition of an en tire spin-valve layered structure using IBS without breaking vacuum. T he layer thickness and temperature dependence of the exchange field fo r NiO/NiFe films produced using IBS are presented and are similar to t hose reported for similar films deposited using reactive magnetron spu ttering. The magnetic properties of highly textured exchange couples d eposited on single crystal substrates are compared to those of simulta neously deposited polycrystalline films, and both show comparable exch ange fields. These results are compared to current theories describing the exchange coupling at the NiO/NiFe interface.