Bending strain tailored exchange bias in epitaxial NiMn/γ′-Fe4N bilayers

The strain tunable exchange bias has attracted much attention due to its practical applications in flexible and wearable spintronic devices. Here, the flexible epitaxial NiMn/c0-Fe4N bilayers are deposited by facing-target reactive sputtering. The maximum strain-induced change ratios of exchange bias field HEB and coercivity HC (jDHEB/HEBj and jDHC/HCj) are 51% and 22%, respectively. A large strain-induced jDHEB/HEBj appears in a thicker ferromagnetic layer, but a large jDHC/HCj) appears in a thinner ferromagnetic layer. At a compressive strain, the antiferromagnetic anisotropy of the tetragonal NiMn layer increases, resulting in an increased HC of NiMn/c0-Fe4N bilayers. The bending-strain induced changes of anisotropy magnetoresistance and planar Hall resistance are also observed at low magnetic fields. The bending-strain tailored magnetic properties can be ascribed to the distributions of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic anisotropies.