  The magnetic properties of Co (<D>=15 nm, <L>=130nm) nanowires are reported.
In oxidized wires, we measure large exchange bias fields of the order of 0.1 T
below T ~ 100 K. The onset of the exchange bias, between the ferromagnetic core
and the anti-ferromagnetic CoO shell, is accompanied by a coercivity drop of
0.2 T which leads to a minimum in coercivity at $\sim100$ K. Magnetization
relaxation measurements show a temperature dependence of the magnetic viscosity
S which is consistent with a volume distribution of the CoO grains at the
surface. We propose that the superparamagnetic fluctuations of the
anti-ferromagnetic CoO shell play a key role in the flipping of the nanowire
magnetization and explain the coercivity drop. This is supported by
micromagnetic simulations. This behavior is specific to the geometry of a 1D
system which possesses a large shape anisotropy and was not previously observed
in 0D (spheres) or 2D (thin films) systems which have a high degree of symmetry
and low coercivities. This study underlines the importance of the AFM
super-paramagnetic fluctuations in the exchange bias mechanism.
