Single spin ensemble model for the change of unidirectional anisotropy constant by annealing on polycrystalline ferromagnetic/ antiferromagnetic bilayers

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Abstract
A model for the exchange coupled polycrystalline ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic (F/AF) bilayers is proposed in order to discuss the mechanism of the change of the unidirectional anisotropy constant (JK) of the bilayers by thermal annealing. The AF layer is treated as an aggregation of the AF grains whose magnetic anisotropy axes lay in the film plane with two-dimensionally random distribution. Two stable states concerning the direction of the AF spins are calculated for the AF grain. Determining the populations of the AF grains in each state in thermal equilibrium, total energy of the system is obtained, which provides the magnetization curves and the magnetic torque curves of the F/AF bilayers. The calculated results show the reduction of JK with increasing the equilibrium temperature, which is due to the changes of the probability functions for the respective spin alignments of the AF grain. We conclude that the changes in JK do not necessarily need any changes of the microstructure and the intrinsic physical quantities of the F/AF bilayers.