Exchange biasing in ferromagnetic amorphous wires:: A controllable micromagnetic configuration

Nonmagnetostrictive Co-rich amorphous wires, 130 mu m in diameter, were stress annealed to induce a transverse anisotropy. The resultant structure consists of a circular-magnetization single domain except in a thin core, 2 mm in diameter, where magnetization is axially oriented. The wall interconnecting the outer shell with the core magnetization induces a local helical anisotropy during the annealing. As a consequence, a strong link between the magnetization directions in both regions appears. It is shown that direct current axial fields produce remarkable shifts of the circular hysteresis loops. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)01109-2].