Influence of Ga⁺ ion irradiation on thermal relaxation of exchange bias field in exchange-coupled CoFe/IrMn bilayers

This paper reports that the CoFe/IrMn bilayers are deposited by magnetron sputtering on the surfaces of thermally-oxidized Si substrates. It investigates the thermal relaxations of both non-irradiated and Ga⁺ ion irradiated CoFe/IrMn bilayers by means of holding the bilayers in a negative saturation field. The results show that exchange bias field decreases with the increase of holding time period for both non-irradiated and Ga⁺ ion irradiated CoFe/IrMn bilayers. Exchange bias field is also found to be smaller upon irradiation at higher ion dose. This reduction of exchange bias field is attributed to the change of energy barrier induced by ion-radiation.