Thermal exchange bias field drift in field cooled Mn83Ir17/Co70Fe30 thin films after 10 keV He ion bombardment

The thermal exchange bias field drift of sputter deposited Mn83Ir17(15 nm)/Co70Fe30 (10 nm)/Ta thin films at room temperature after 10 keV He+ ion bombardment in an externally applied in-plane magnetic field for different ion fluences was studied. Although field cooling of the layer system resulted in a temporally stable exchange bias field at room temperature the exchange bias field starts to drift after ion bombardment like in non-annealed samples. Between 1 and 648 h after ion bombardment a logarithmic increase in the absolute magnitude of the exchange bias field is observed. A tentative model is presented for its description based on noninteracting domains in the antiferromagnet. A comparison between experimental data and the model reveals the delicate interplay between the ion bombardment modified average antiferromagnetic anisotropy constants, exchange coupling constants, and relaxation time distributions in the polycrystalline layer system influencing the thermal drift velocities. (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3532046]