Fe/CoO bilayers have been deposited and characterized in the Ion and
Molecular Beam Laboratory (IMBL) at the K.U.Leuven. Fe/CoO layers
have been deposited in a molecular beam epitaxy system with the aim of
studying the exchange bias effect occurring at the interface between
the ferromagnetic Fe layer and the antiferromagnetic CoO layer after
field cooling the sample. The CoO layer was formed by depositing a 2
nm Co layer by electron beam evaporation, which is then in situ
oxidized by exposing the Co layer to a reduced oxygen atmosphere. The
20 nm Fe layer is deposited from an electron beam gun and the samples
are capped with a 5 nm Au protective layer. The sample is
characterized by scanning probe microscopy and in situ Rutherford
Backscattering spectroscopy. By evaporating a thin isotopically pure
57Fe layer from a Knudsen effusion cell, a site selective
characterization can be carried out using conversion electron
Mössbauer spectroscopy. The correlation between the morphological and
magnetic properties will be presented.
Work supported by the Flemish GOA and FWO projects and by the Belgian
IAP project.