The magnetic properties of Fe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub> thick films as described by third order perturbed Heisenberg Hamiltonian

Thick films of Fe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub> up to 10000 spin layers have been explained using third order perturbed modified Heisenberg Hamiltonian with seven magnetic parameters. Total magnetic energy and orientation of magnetic easy directions were determined for spinel stru...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: P. Samarasekara, S. Dehipawala
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Faculty of Science, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka 2019-09-01
Series:Ceylon Journal of Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://cjs.sljol.info/articles/7645
Description
Summary:Thick films of Fe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub> up to 10000 spin layers have been explained using third order perturbed modified Heisenberg Hamiltonian with seven magnetic parameters. Total magnetic energy and orientation of magnetic easy directions were determined for spinel structure of Fe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub> with octahedral and tetrahedral sites. The effect of number of spin layers and stress induced anisotropy on magnetic properties was investigated. 3-D plot of energy versus angle and number of spin layers was plotted to determine the number of spin layers corresponding to minimum magnetic energy. Magnetic easy axis was found by plotting a graph of energy versus angle for one particular value of the previously-mentioned number of spin layers. Similarly, 3-D and 2-D graphs were plotted for stress induced anisotropy. For film with 4 spin layers, magnetic easy directions were found to be <span>θ</span> = 2.3, 2.5, 5.6 radians, …. When the ratio of stress induced anisotropy to strength of long-range dipole interaction is 2, magnetic easy direction was found to be <span>θ</span> = 2.6 radians. Here the angles were measured with respect to a line drawn normal to the film plane. Because Fe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub> is a soft magnetic material, Fe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub> finds potential applications in magnetic memory devices.
ISSN:2513-2814
2513-230X