Uniform susceptibility of classical antiferromagnets in one and two dimensions in a magnetic field

We simulated the field-dependent magnetization m(H,T) and the uniform susceptibility \chi(H,T) of classical Heisenberg antiferromagnets in the chain and square-lattice geometry using Monte Carlo methods. The results confirm the singular behavior of \chi(H,T) at small T,H: \lim_{T \to 0}\lim_{H \to 0} \chi(H,T)=1/(2J_0)(1-1/D) and \lim_{H \to 0}\lim_{T \to 0} \chi(H,T)=1/(2J_0), where D=3 is the number of spin components, J_0=zJ, and z is the number of nearest neighbors. A good agreement is achieved in a wide range of temperatures T and magnetic fields H with the first-order 1/D expansion results [D. A. Garanin, J. Stat. Phys. 83, 907 (1996)]Comment: 4 PR pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR

Magnetization Switching in Small Ferromagnetic Particles: Nucleation and Coherent Rotation

The mechanisms of thermally activated magnetization switching in small ferromagnetic particles driven by an external magnetic field are investigated. For low uniaxial anisotropy the spins rotate coherently while for sufficiently large uniaxial anisotropy they behave Ising-like, i.e. the switching then is due to nucleation. The crossover from coherent rotation to nucleation is studied for the classical three-dimensional Heisenberg model with uniaxial anisotropy by Monte Carlo simulations. From the temperature dependence of the metastable lifetime the energy barrier of a switching process can be determined. For the case of infinite anisotropy we compare numerical results from simulations of the Ising model with theoretical results for energy barriers for both, single-droplet and multi-droplet nucleation. The simulated barriers are in agreement with the theoretical predictions.Comment: 3 pages, Revtex, 4 Figures include

Role of temperature-dependent spin model parameters in ultra-fast magnetization dynamics

In the spirit of multi-scale modelling magnetization dynamics at elevated temperature is often simulated in terms of a spin model where the model parameters are derived from first principles. While these parameters are mostly assumed temperature-independent and thermal properties arise from spin fluctuations only, other scenarios are also possible. Choosing bcc Fe as an example, we investigate the influence of different kinds of model assumptions on ultra-fast spin dynamics, where following a femtosecond laser pulse a sample is demagnetized due to a sudden rise of the electron temperature. While different model assumptions do not affect the simulational results qualitatively, their details do depend on the nature of the modelling.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Orientation and temperature dependence of domain wall properties in FePt

An investigation of the orientation and temperature dependence of domain wall properties in FePt is presented. The authors use a microscopic, atomic model for the magnetic interactions within an effective, classical spin Hamiltonian constructed on the basis of spin-density functional calculations. They find a significant dependence of the domain wall width as well as the domain wall energy on the orientation of the wall with respect to the crystal lattice. Investigating the temperature dependence, they demonstrate the existence of elliptical domain walls in FePt at room temperature. The consequences of their findings for a micromagnetic continuum theory are discussed. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics

Magnetization Switching in Nanowires: Monte Carlo Study with Fast Fourier Transformation for Dipolar Fields

For the investigations of thermally activated magnetization reversal in systems of classical magnetic moments numerical methods are desirable. We present numerical studies which base on time quantified Monte Carlo methods where the long-range dipole-dipole interaction is calculated with the aid of fast Fourier transformation. As an example, we study models for ferromagnetic nanowires comparing our numerical results for the characteristic time of the reversal process also with numerical data from Langevin dynamics simulations where the fast Fourier transformation method is well established. Depending on the system geometry different reversal mechanism occur like coherent rotation, nucleation, and curling.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to J. Magn. Magn. Ma

Multiscale modeling of ultrafast element-specific magnetization dynamics of ferromagnetic alloys

A hierarchical multiscale approach to model the magnetization dynamics of ferromagnetic ran- dom alloys is presented. First-principles calculations of the Heisenberg exchange integrals are linked to atomistic spin models based upon the stochastic Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation to calculate temperature-dependent parameters (e.g., effective exchange interactions, damping param- eters). These parameters are subsequently used in the Landau-Lifshitz-Bloch (LLB) model for multi-sublattice magnets to calculate numerically and analytically the ultrafast demagnetization times. The developed multiscale method is applied here to FeNi (permalloy) as well as to copper- doped FeNi alloys. We find that after an ultrafast heat pulse the Ni sublattice demagnetizes faster than the Fe sublattice for the here-studied FeNi-based alloys

Multiscale modeling of magnetic materials: Temperature dependence of the exchange stiffness

For finite-temperature micromagnetic simulations the knowledge of the temperature dependence of the exchange stiffness plays a central role. We use two approaches for the calculation of the thermodynamic exchange parameter from spin models: (i) based on the domain-wall energy and (ii) based on the spin-wave dispersion. The corresponding analytical and numerical approaches are introduced and compared. A general theory for the temperature dependence and scaling of the exchange stiffness is developed using the classical spectral density method. The low-temperature exchange stiffness A is found to scale with magnetization as m(1.66) for systems on a simple cubic lattice and as m(1.76) for an FePt Hamiltonian parametrized through ab initio calculations. The additional reduction in the scaling exponent, as compared to the mean-field theory (A similar to m(2)), comes from the nonlinear spin-wave effects

Static and dynamic properties of Single-Chain Magnets with sharp and broad domain walls

We discuss time-quantified Monte-Carlo simulations on classical spin chains with uniaxial anisotropy in relation to static calculations. Depending on the thickness of domain walls, controlled by the relative strength of the exchange and magnetic anisotropy energy, we found two distinct regimes in which both the static and dynamic behavior are different. For broad domain walls, the interplay between localized excitations and spin waves turns out to be crucial at finite temperature. As a consequence, a different protocol should be followed in the experimental characterization of slow-relaxing spin chains with broad domain walls with respect to the usual Ising limit.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Current-induced domain wall motion including thermal effects based on Landau-Lifshitz-Bloch equation

We employ the Landau-Lifshitz-Bloch (LLB) equation to investigate current-induced domain wall motion at finite temperatures by numerical micromagnetic simulations. We extend the LLB equation with spin torque terms that account for the effect of spin-polarized currents and we find that the velocities depend strongly on the interplay between adiabatic and non-adiabatic spin torque terms. As a function of temperature, we find non-monotonous behavior, which might be useful to determine the relative strengths of the spin torque terms experimentally.Comment: 20 page, 8 figure