Dependence of the blocking temperature in exchange biased ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic bilayers on the thickness of the antiferromagnetic layer

Based on the size-dependent exchange interaction of antiferromagnets, the blocking temperature in exchange-biased ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic bilayers is modelled as a function of the thickness of the antiferromagnetic layer. It is found that this temperature decreases with decreasing layer thickness, which agrees with the available experimental measurements for Fe3O4/CoO, NiO/NiFe, CoNiO/NiFe, IrMn/NiFe, Py/IrMn, IrMn/CoFe, FeMn/NiFe, MnPt/CoFe and FeF2/Fe bilayers. The correspondence between the model predictions and experimental evidence results in a deeper understanding of the present models for the above phenomena.