Research Articles

Fcc and bcc structured ferromagnetic films with five to twenty spin layers explained by second order perturbed Heisenberg Hamiltonian

Authors:

Abstract

Second order perturbed 2-D Heisenberg Hamiltonian model was employed to explain the magnetic properties of fcc and bcc structured ferromagnetic thin films with five to twenty spin layers. Magnetic energy versus azimuthal angle of spin was plotted to find the angle corresponding to maximum energy and minimum energy. Hence magnetic easy and hard directions were determined. The magnetic easy axis gradually rotates from out of plane (perpendicular) to in plane direction as the number of spin layers is increased. This implies that the films indicates a preferred in plane easy axis orientation at higher thicknesses. The energy required to rotate spin from hard to easy (or vice versa) directions gradually increases with number of spin layers. Our results agree with the experimental data obtained for ferromagnetic thin films.

Keywords:

Heisenberg HamiltonianThin filmsMagnetic easy axisFerromagnetic
  • Year: 2017
  • Volume: 46 Issue: 1
  • Page/Article: 37-45
  • DOI: 10.4038/cjs.v46i1.7416
  • Published on 22 Mar 2017
  • Peer Reviewed