Applications based on nano- and microscaled systems have become indispensable in many aspects in everyday life, industry, research and medicine. In this regard, thin film technology plays a crucial role with the physical properties of solids changing significantly when they are reduced to thin layers with thicknesses in the nanometer range. In this regime, a solid’s microstructure as well as boundary and surface effects start to dominate. A prominent example is the exchange bias effect, which results due to the ...