Structure of macrodomain walls in polytwinned magnets

Authors

Kirill D. Belashchenko, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Vladimir P. Antropov, Ames Laboratory, US Department of EnergyFollow

Date of this Version

5-15-2002

Comments

Published in JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS VOLUME 91, NUMBER 10. © 2002 American Institute of Physics. Used by permission.

Abstract

We propose a microscopic approach to the studies of magnetic configurations in hard magnets which may be conveniently used for nanoscale systems; the microstructure of the magnet is easily and naturally included in the calculations. This approach is applied to find the structure of macrodomain walls in polytwinned magnets of the CoPt family. Magnetostatic fields are small compared to the anisotropy field in these magnets; direct simulation shows that in this case the macrodomain wall is not continuous, but rather comprised of segments held together by relatively small magnetostatic forces. This segmentation is expected to have a strong effect on magnetization processes.