Contribution of Convex Surfaces to Magnetostatic Interaction in Granular Medium.

Finite element micromagnetic studies on the magnetic behaviors of granular structures are performed to investigate the magnetostatic contributions of the curved surfaces of grains with various film thicknesses. From the result, it is found that the magnetization reversal process in one grain is much faster when the grains have convex surfaces. The magnetization vectors of all convex models are stabilized in shorter time by factor of 10 compared to those of flat models. And, the reversals of each grain are carried out by nucleation and domain wall propagation in the entire granular structure, whereas the grains in flat model are individually reversed. Moreover, the magnetization behaviors of the convex models are closer to the experimental results. Since the geometric and magnetic conditions are same for the two models, the only origin of the more realistic magnetic behavior is the magnetostatic interaction between the grains, enhanced by introducing the convex surfaces. From the further analysis, it is found that the convex surface induces pinning field that suppress other parts' reversal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]