Microscopic domain structure in unidirectional and isotropic exchange-coupled NiO/NiFe bilayers

Summary form only given. The authors studied the thickness effect of NiO and NiFe on the microscopic domain structure and magnetization reversal in unidirectional and isotropic exchange-coupled NiO(0/spl sim/60 nm)/NiFe(5/spl sim/10 nm) films using magnetic force microscopy. As the NiO thickness increases, the microscopic domain structure of the unidirectional biased film changed from a mesh-type ripple pattern with no NiO to a more complicated and coarse-grained ripple structure at 60 nm. On the other hand, for the isotropic exchange coupled film, we observed a new cross-type domain with out-of plane magnetization.