Strain-modulated antiferromagnetic spin orientation and exchange coupling in Fe/CoO(001)

The effect of CoO spin orientation on exchange coupling was investigated in single-crystalline Fe/CoO/MnO/MgO(001) systems. An antiferromagnetic CoO spin reorientation transition from the in-plane direction to the out-of-plane direction was found to be associated with the in-plane strain transition in CoO film from compression to expansion. The induced uniaxial anisotropies by exchange coupling at the Fe/CoO interface are significantly stronger for the in-plane CoO spin orientation than for the out-of-plane CoO spin orientation. Our study provides a way to modify the exchange coupling in the ferromagnetic (FM)/antiferromagnetic (AFM) bilayer by modulating the strain in the AFM film. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.