Thermal fluctuations and longitudinal relaxation of single-domain magnetic particles at elevated temperatures

We present numerical and analytical results for the swiching times of magnetic nanoparticles with uniaxial anisotropy at elevated temperatures, including the vicinity of T_c. The consideration is based in the Landau-Lifshitz-Bloch equation that includes the relaxation of the magnetization magnitude M. The resulting switching times are shorter than those following from the naive Landau-Lifshitz equation due to (i) additional barrier lowering because of the reduction of M at the barrier and (ii) critical divergence of the damping parameters.Comment: 4 PR pages, 1 figur

Computational micromagnetics with Commics

We present our open-source Python module Commics for the study of the magnetization dynamics in ferromagnetic materials via micromagnetic simulations. It implements state-of-the-art unconditionally convergent finite element methods for the numerical integration of the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation. The implementation is based on the multiphysics finite element software Netgen/NGSolve. The simulation scripts are written in Python, which leads to very readable code and direct access to extensive post-processing. Together with documentation and example scripts, the code is freely available on GitLab. Program summary: Program title: Commics Program Files doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/29wv9h78h7.1 Licensing provisions: GPLv3 Programming language: Python3 Nature of problem: Numerical integration of the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation in three space dimensions Solution method: Tangent plane scheme [1]: original first-order version, projection-free version, second-order version, efficient second-order IMEX version; Midpoint scheme [2]: original version, IMEX version; Magnetostatic Maxwell equations are treated by the hybrid FEM–BEM method [3] Additional comments including restrictions and unusual features: An installation of the finite element software Netgen/NGSolve and an installation of the boundary element library BEM++ are required. References [1] F. Alouges. A new finite element scheme for Landau–Lifchitz equations. Discrete Contin. Dyn. Syst. Ser. S, 1(2):187–196, 2008. [2] S. Bartels and A. Prohl. Convergence of an implicit finite element method for the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation. SIAM J. Numer. Anal., 44(4):1405–1419, 2006. [3] D. R. Fredkin and T. R. Koehler. Hybrid method for computing demagnetization fields. IEEE Trans. Magn., 26(2):415–417, 1990

The Landau-Lifshitz equation in atomistic models

The Landau–Lifshitz (LL) equation, originally proposed at the macrospin level, is increasingly used in Atomistic Spin Dynamic (ASD) models. These models are based on a spin Hamiltonian featuring atomic spins of fixed length, with the exchange introduced using the Heisenberg formalism. ASD models are proving a powerful approach to the fundamental understanding of ultrafast magnetization dynamics, including the prediction of the thermally induced magnetization switching phenomenon in which the magnetization is reversed using an ultra-fast laser pulse in the absence of an externally applied field. This paper outlines the ASD model approach and considers the role and limitations of the LL equation in this context

Ultrafast heating as a sufficient stimulus for magnetization reversal in a ferrimagnet.

The question of how, and how fast, magnetization can be reversed is a topic of great practical interest for the manipulation and storage of magnetic information. It is generally accepted that magnetization reversal should be driven by a stimulus represented by time-non-invariant vectors such as a magnetic field, spin-polarized electric current, or cross-product of two oscillating electric fields. However, until now it has been generally assumed that heating alone, not represented as a vector at all, cannot result in a deterministic reversal of magnetization, although it may assist this process. Here we show numerically and demonstrate experimentally a novel mechanism of deterministic magnetization reversal in a ferrimagnet driven by an ultrafast heating of the medium resulting from the absorption of a sub-picosecond laser pulse without the presence of a magnetic field

Computational micromagnetics with Commics

We present our open-source Python module Commics for the study of the magnetization dynamics in ferromagnetic materials via micromagnetic simulations. It implements state-of-the-art unconditionally convergent finite element methods for the numerical integration of the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation. The implementation is based on the multiphysics finite element software Netgen/NGSolve. The simulation scripts are written in Python, which leads to very readable code and direct access to extensive post-processing. Together with documentation and example scripts, the code is freely available on GitLab

The Landau–Lifshitz equation in atomistic models

The Landau–Lifshitz (LL) equation, originally proposed at the macrospin level, is increasingly used in Atomistic Spin Dynamic (ASD) models. These models are based on a spin Hamiltonian featuring atomic spins of fixed length, with the exchange introduced using the Heisenberg formalism. ASD models are proving a powerful approach to the fundamental understanding of ultrafast magnetization dynamics, including the prediction of the thermally induced magnetization switching phenomenon in which the magnetization is reversed using an ultrafast laser pulse in the absence of an externally applied field. This paper outlines the ASD model approach and considers the role and limitations of the LL equation in this context

Minimum energy paths in spin chain systems

Minimum energy paths (MEPs) link two given stable magnetic configurations and reveal the energy barrier between states. Analysing reaction pathways is especially relevant in the context of magnetic recording where one is concerned with the thermal stability of written data. The storage industry is currently migrating to Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording enabling the writing process of highly coercive grains. However, thermal stability remains a problem, especially when the bit patterns are subjected to high temperatures during the writing or rewriting of neighbouring tracks. Concerning ourselves with the long-term and controlled stability of the recorded information, we developed an atomistic 1-dimensional model which allows us to analyse MEPs of reversal and extract the corresponding energy barriers. Our work is based on the Lagrange multiplier method of finding points of extremum for functions subject to equality constraints. Here, we integrate the Lagrange optimisation strategy in a direct minimisation tool based on the gradient descent algorithm. We first apply our model to a generic single-phase spin chain, demonstrating its ability to track energy surfaces for coherent or domain-wall based reversal. Energy barriers are investigated varying the height of the grain, achieving good agreement with the Stoner-Wohlfarth model or the 180◦ Bloch wall description. Additionally, our results are shown to overlap with the dynamic calculations obtained using the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation. An analysis of field-dependent MEPs, revealed identical coercivities irrespective of the grain height, in the case of an applied field parallel with respect to the easy-axis. Finally, we qualitatively describe MEPs of reversal in exchange coupled hard/soft systems emphasising the role of the interfacial exchange in lowering the switching field. Presently, the model can successfully be applied in monolayer structures; in bi-layer systems, the Lagrange multiplier method is limited due to the form of the constraint field acting upon the spin chain

Convergence of an implicit–explicit midpoint scheme for computational micromagnetics

Based on lowest-order finite elements in space, we consider the numerical integration of the Landau–Lifschitz–Gilbert equation (LLG). The dynamics of LLG is driven by the so-called effective field which usually consists of the exchange field, the external field, and lower-order contributions such as the stray field. The latter requires the solution of an additional partial differential equation in full space. Following Bartels and Prohl (2006), we employ the implicit midpoint rule to treat the exchange field. However, in order to treat the lower-order terms effectively, we combine the midpoint rule with an explicit Adams–Bashforth scheme. The resulting integrator is formally of second-order in time, and we prove unconditional convergence towards a weak solution of LLG. Numerical experiments underpin the theoretical findings