Measurements of exchange anisotropy in NiFe/NiO films with different techniques

One of the puzzles of the recent investigations on the exchange anisotropy in ferromagnetic (FM)/antiferromagnetic (AF) bilayers is the fact that diff erent techniques yield different values for the exchange field (H-E) betwee n the layers. We report an investigation on sputtered NiFe/NiO carried out with three different techniques, namely, magneto-optical Kerr effect magnet ometry (MOKE), Brillouin light scattering (BLS), and ferromagnetic resonanc e (FMR). In an attempt to reconcile the measurements obtained with the vari ous techniques, we interpret the data with a model that includes the format ion of a planar domain wall in the AF layer, giving rise to a torque on the FM moment represented by an effective domain wall field (H-W). We find out that while the same pair of values of H-E and H-W provide equally good fit s to the reversible FMR and BLS measurements, different pairs are necessary to fit the irreversible magnetometry data. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)85808-9].