Equilibrium and non-equilibrium properties of synthetic metamagnetic films: A Monte Carlo study

Abstract

Synthetic antiferromagnets with strong perpendicular anisotropy can be modeled by layered Ising antiferromagnets. Accounting for the fact that in the experimental systems the ferromagnetic layers, coupled antiferromagnetically via spacers, are multilayers, we propose a description through Ising films where ferromagnetic stacks composed of multiple layers are coupled antiferromagnetically. We study the equilibrium and non-equilibrium properties of these systems where we vary the number of layers in each stack. Using numerical simulations, we construct equilibrium temperature$-$magnetic field phase diagrams for a variety of cases. We find the same dominant features (three stable phases, where one phase boundary ends in a critical end point, whereas the other phase boundary shows a tricritical point at which the transition changes from first to second order) for all studied cases. Using time-dependent quantities, we also study the ordering processes that take place after a temperature quench. The nature of long-lived metastable states are discussed for thin films, whereas for thick films we compute the surface autocorrelation exponent.

23 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in the Physical Review B

References in corpus (6)

• Aging, rejuvenation and memory : the example of spin glasses
• Zero-Temperature Relaxation of Three-Dimensional Ising Ferromagnets
• Zero-Temperature Freezing in Three-Dimensional Kinetic Ising Model
• Topological defects in antiferromagnetically coupled multilayers with perpendicular anisotropy
• Local aging phenomena close to magnetic surfaces
• Collective non-equilibrium dynamics at surfaces and the spatio-temporal edge

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Monte Carlo study of the phase diagram of layered XY antiferromagnet
• Ising Metamagnet Driven by Propagating Magnetic Field Wave: Nonequilibrium Phases and Transitions