Ferromagnetic resonance investigation of the residual coupling in spin-valve systems -: art. no. 224406

The ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) technique has been used to investigate the properties of spin-valve systems. We derive the FMR dispersion relation taking into account the competition that appears between the direct exchange bias coupling and the indirect interlayer coupling. For uncoupled ferromagnetic (FM) layers, the system exhibits a dispersion relation corresponding to two independent systems: a single FM layer (free layer) and an exchange-coupled bilayer (reference/antiferromagnetic layers). In the interlayer coupled regime a unidirectional anisotropy is induced in the free layer and the FMR field is overall downshifted. Both features are observed experimentally and the results are compared with the model.