Journal Club
Date/time: 3:30 PM, Fri, Nov 12 2010.
Room: Sumwalt 102
Speaker: Shu Yan

Paper: Andre Thiaville
Phys. Rev. B 61, 12221 (2000)
Coherent rotation of magnetization in three dimensions: A geometrical
approach

Abstract:
We propose a geometrical method to explore the problem of coherent
magnetization rotation, for an arbitrary anisotropy and in three dimensions.
This method is a nontrivial generalization of the astroid construction which
is well known in two dimensions. Specific features to the three-dimensional
(3D) problem are highlighted. In order to establish a connection with the
thermal and quantum theories of magnetization relaxation, the local
curvatures of the potential are also evaluated geometrically. As an
application of the method to a real 3D problem, the determination of the
effective anisotropy constants from 3D switching field measurements is
discussed and first results shown.