Thickness dependence of exchange coupling in epitaxial Fe 3 O 4/ CoFe 2 O 4 soft/hard magnetic bilayers

Abstract

Epitaxial magnetic heterostructures of (soft-)Fe3O4/(hard-)CoFe2O4(001) have been fabricated with a varying thicknesses of soft ferrite from 5 to 25 nm. We report a change in the regime of magnetic interaction between the layers from rigid-coupling to exchange-spring behavior, above a critical thickness of the soft magnetic Fe3O4 layer. We show that the symmetry and epitaxial matching between the spinel structures of CoFe2O4 and Fe3O4 at the interface stabilize the Verwey transition close to the bulk value even for 5-nm-thick Fe3O4. The large interface exchange-coupling constant estimated from low-temperature M(H) data confirmed the good quality of the ferrite-ferrite interface and the major role played by the interface in the magnetization dynamics. The results presented here constitute a model system for understanding the magnetic behavior of interfaces in core/shell nanoparticles and magnetic oxide-based spintronic devices.