Magnetic stability of novel exchange coupled systems

The magnetic stability of two different interracial exchange coupled systems are investigated using the magneto-optic Kerr effect during repeated reversal of the soft layer magnetization by field cycling up to 10{sup 7} times. For Fe/Cr double-superlattice exchange biased systems, small but rapid initial decay of exchange bias field H{sub E} and the remanent magnetization is observed. Also the Sin-Co/Fe bilayers grown epitaxially with uniaxial in-plane anisotropy show similar decay. However, the H{sub E} of biaxial and random in-plane bilayers, shows gradual decay without large reduction of the magnetization. These different decay behaviors explained by their different microstructure and interracial spin configurations.