Figure 2

Room-temperature hysteresis loops measured along the easy magnetisation direction for the following: (a) 4-nm-thick Co film deposited at 54°; (b) 4-nm-thick Co film that was normally deposited; (c) a bilayer consisting of two strongly exchange-coupled 4-nm-thick Co layers, where one layer was obliquely deposited at 54° and the other layer was normally deposited; and (d) a trilayer consisting of a 4-nm-thick Co layer deposited at 54°, a 6-nm-thick Ta spacer layer and a 4-nm-thick normally deposited Co layer. In this case, the ferromagnetic Co layers are magnetically decoupled due to the effect of the Ta spacer layer. The schematic illustrations corresponding to the mentioned samples are labelled as follows: (a*) 4-nm-thick Co film deposited at 54°; (b*) 4-nm-thick Co film that was normally deposited; (c*) a bilayer consisting of a 4-nm-thick Co film deposited at 54° and a normally deposited 4-nm-thick Co film; and (d*) a trilayer consisting of a 4-nm-thick Co film deposited at 54°, a 6-nm-thick Ta spacer layer and a normally deposited 4-nm-thick Co film.