Abstract
The influence of Ir <sub>1-x</sub> Mn <sub>x</sub> composition and post-annealing on structure and exchange bias of epitaxial Ir <sub>1-x</sub> Mn <sub>x</sub> (∼ 10 nm)/Ni <sub>80</sub> Fe <sub>20</sub> (7 nm) films were studied. The Ir <sub>1-x</sub> Mn <sub>x</sub> layer was prepared by MBE growth of [Mn(0.4 nm<X nm<0.7 nm)/Ir(0.2 nm)] <sub>N</sub> multilayer films. The optimal H <sub>ex</sub> increases to ∼ 190 Oe after annealing at 533 K for 3 h. X-ray diffraction indicates that the strength of exchange bias is increased with the order parameter of Ir <sub>1-x</sub> Mn <sub>x</sub> alloy. © 2011 IEEE.