Symmetry Driven Irreversibilities at Ferromagnetic-Antiferromagnetic Interfaces

The coupling between a ferromagnet and an antiferromagnet can establish a directional anisotropy called exchange bias. In many systems this exchange bias is reduced upon subsequent field cycling, which is referred to as training effects. Numerical simulations of a simple coherent rotation model suggest that the symmetry of the anisotropy in the antiferromagnet is crucial for the understanding of training effects in exchange bias systems. Namely, the existence of multiple antiferromagnetic easy anisotropy axes can initially stabilize a noncollinear arrangement of the antiferromagnetic spins, which relaxes into a collinear arrangement after the first magnetization reversal of the ferromagnet.