Experimental comparison of exchange bias measurement methodologies

Measurements performed on all-ferromagnetic bilayer systems and supported by model calculation results are used to compare different exchange bias characterization methods. We demonstrate that the accuracy of the conventional two-point technique based on measuring the sum of the coercive fields depends on the symmetry properties of hysteresis loops. On the other hand, the recently proposed center of mass method yields results independent of the hysteresis loop type and coincides with the two-point measurement only if the loops are symmetric. Our experimental and simulation results clearly demonstrate a strong correlation between loop asymmetry and the difference between these methods