Domain wall motion in nanowires using moving grids (invited)

H. Forster, T. Schrefl, D. Suess, W. Scholz, V. Tsiantos, R. Dittrich, and J. Fidler

Journal of Applied Physics -- May 15, 2002 -- Volume 91, Issue 10, pp. 6914-6919

The magnetization reversal process of Co nanowires was investigated using a moving mesh technique. The nucleation and expansion of reversed domains is calculated by solving the Gilbert equation of motion for different damping constants. The adaptive finite element method reduces the total CPU time by more than a factor of 4 as compared to a uniform mesh. Two different domain wall types are observed. For a wire diameter of d = 10 nm transverse walls occur and gyromagnetic precession limits the domain wall velocity. The domain wall velocity increases from 50 to 520 m/s as the Gilbert damping constant increases from alpha=0.05 to alpha=1 at an applied field of 500 kA/m. For a diameter greater than 20 nm vortex walls are formed. The vortex mobility increases with decreasing damping constant. Thus velocities up to 2000 m/s are reached for a wire diameter of 40 nm, alpha=0.05, and an applied field of 250 kA/m.

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Feb. 13, 2001