Magnetic Switching of Thin Films under Thermal
Perturbation
Di Liu, and C.J. García-Cervera.
Abstract
In this paper, we study the magnetic switching of sub-micron sized
ferromagnetic thin films under thermal noise and external
field. It is shown that the presence of the noise makes the
switching easier with weaker external fields and induces more
intermediate metastable states in the switching
pathways. Different switching pathways are preferred at different
temperatures. A quantitative relation between the temperature and
the switching field for different metastable states is given
through an adjusted Arrhenius formula near the critical
field. Based on this, preferred switching pathways at different
temperatures are obtained by comparing the energy barriers along
different pathways.