Department of Physics and Astronomy: Publications and Other Research
Date of this Version
November 1999
Abstract
The RKKY interaction between well-separated magnetic particles in a nonmagnetic metallic matrix is calculated. It turns out that the net interaction can be mapped onto an RKKY interaction between two point-like effective moments. The effective moments exhibit a strongly oscillating dependence on the particle's size, shape, and orientation, but their magnitudes are governed by scaling laws. As a rule, magnetostatic interactions tend to suppress the RKKY effect in particles larger than about 1 nm. Surface roughness leaves the effective-moment picture unaltered but tends to yield a moderate reduction of the effective moments. The results are discussed in the context of magnetic recording, spin-glass magnetism, and cluster physics.
Comments
Published in EUROPHYSICS LETTERS 15; November 1999; Europhys. Lett., 48 (4), pp. 455-460 (1999).