Navarro Palma, ElenaVélez, M.Huttel, Y.Pérez Junquera, A.Martín, J. Y.Lima, O. F. deCebollada, A.Alameda, J. M.Vicent López, José Luis2023-06-202023-06-202009-02-010021-897910.1063/1.3075740https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/42754© 2009 American Institute of Physics. Work was supported by Spanish Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia under Grant Nos. NAN2004-09087, FIS2005- 07392, FIS2008-06249, Consolider CSD2007-00010, Consolider-Ingenio-2007 Nanoselect 26400, and MAT2005- 05524-C02 and Comunidad de Madrid under Grant Nos. 2006-CM-ESP-0337-0505 CITECNOMIK and S-0505/ MAT/0194 NANOMAGNET. O.F.d.L. wants to thank Banco Santander–UCM for a sabbatical professorship and the Brazilian science agencies FAPESP and CNPq for the partial support. Y.H. acknowledges the program “Ramón y Cajal.”Shifted hysteresis loops characteristic of the exchange bias effect between a ferromagnet and an antiferromagnet are demonstrated in structures formed by a 2.5 nm Cr layer deposited on top of an array of Fe nanoislands (Cr/Fe-nanoislands). This effect evidences the persistence of antiferromagnetic (AF) order for Cr layers much thinner than the thickness reported in the literature. The field shift measured is found to increase for the smallest island sizes, which can be related with the enhancement of the Fe-nanoisland surface to volume ratio. The comparative study between superconducting proximity effects in Nb/Cr/Fe-nanoislands and Nb/normal metal/Fe-nanoisland hybrids (where the normal metals used are Al and Pt) confirms the presence of AF order in the 2.5 nm Cr spacer layer. A much shorter penetration depth of the Cooper pairs into the AF Cr layers than in the normal metal Pt and Al spacer layers is deduced.engjournal articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3075740http://aip.scitation.orgopen access538.9Sn-119 mossbauer-spectroscopyExchange biasFe/Cr(001) superlatticesGiant magnetoresistanceTransition-temperatureFe(110) islandsMultilayersLayersFeTrilayersFísica de materialesFísica del estado sólido2211 Física del Estado Sólido