  We present a comprehensive study of the exchange bias effect in a model
system. Through numerical analysis of the exchange bias and coercive fields as
a function of the antiferromagnetic layer thickness we deduce the absolute
value of the averaged anisotropy constant of the antiferromagnet. We show that
the anisotropy of IrMn exhibits a finite size effect as a function of
thickness. The interfacial spin disorder involved in the data analysis is
further supported by the observation of the dual behavior of the interfacial
uncompensated spins. Utilizing soft x-ray resonant magnetic reflectometry we
have observed that the antiferromagnetic uncompensated spins are dominantly
frozen with nearly no rotating spins due to the chemical intermixing, which
correlates to the inferred mechanism for the exchange bias.
