Thermally activated magnetization switching in a nanostructured synthetic ferrimagnet

Abstract

Thermally activated magnetization switching in a nanostructured synthetic ferrimagnet is investigated by micromagnetic simulations and results are analyzed using the Arrhenius-Neel formula. In most of the previous studies, the characteristic attempt time was assumed to be fixed and the parameter extracted from the analysis was the magnetic energy barrier. In this study, however, the assumption of a fixed characteristic attempt time was not used, with resultant advantages of extracting the characteristic attempt time from the analysis and of critically testing the validity of the formula. This was made possible with a precise analytical description of the magnetic field dependence of the energy barrier in the synthetic ferrimagnet. The thermally activated magnetization switching behavior is found to be well described by the Arrhenius-Neel formula with a well-defined characteristic attempt time of 3.1 ns. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4792303]