Hard/soft magnetic trilayer: Monte Carlo simulation

•Hard/soft magnetic trilayers models are proposed.•The influence of the thickness of the hard magnetic layers is explored.•Our models are shown to describe well of magnetic properties of SmCo/Fe trilayers. We present computer models of three-layer (trilayer) hard/soft magnetic heterostructures for the study of magnetic reversal processes under the external magnetic field using the Monte Carlo method. The comparisons of data for the magnetic SmCo/Fe trilayer models with the results for the magnetic SmCo/Fe bilayer model are presented. For the SmCo/Fe trilayer heterostructures, the exchange-bias field Hex and the irreversibility field Hirr increase by 150% and 30%, respectively, than for the SmCo/Fe bilayer model. Phase diagrams of dependencies of the Hex and Hirr values on the thickness of the hard magnetic layer of the trilayer magnetic heterostructures are plotted.