INCREASED EXCHANGE-ANISOTROPY DUE TO DISORDER AT PERMALLOY COO INTERFACES/

The exchange anisotropy of Ni80Fe20 (permalloy) films deposited onto b ulk single crystal CoO substrates using molecular-beam epitaxy is stro ngly affected by the interface structure. Contrary to expectations for uncompensated interfaces, the loop shift increases for samples with g reater interface disorder. The results are discussed in the light of p roposed exchange anisotropy models. The results suggest that antiferro magnet domain dynamics are an important part of the exchange anisotrop y mechanism. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.