Size and step effects of hysteresis in mixed magnetic films

Size effect of the coercivity and step effect in the ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic (FM/AFM) mixed magnetic films are studied by a micromagnetism and Monte Carlo methods. Step effect is found in the simulation, which can be explained by the simple mean field theory. The calculated results indicate that it is attributed to the different response of the clusters with different size and different diluted ratio of antiferromagnetic atom on the external field, which is explained by the simple mean field theory well. The dependence of the diluted ratio of ferromagnetic atom x on the coercivity Hc is also simulated. The simulated results explain the experimental facts for the mixed magnetic films well.© (2004) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.