Spacing Dependent Mechanisms of Remagnetization in 1D System of Elongated Diamond Shaped Thin Magnetic Particles

Four different switching scenarios have been revealed for a linear chain of flat magnetic particles with long axes perpendicular to the axis of the chain. The diamond-like shape of the particles has been previously shown to be the best to ensure a uniform and stable magnetization within a single particle, that is, to behave as a macrospin. The occurrence of each scenario depends on the distance of the particles in the chain. Whereas long distances favor direct remagnetization of a ferromagnetic configuration "all up" to the one "all down", a short enough distance allows the system to recover its ground state at a zero field, that is, an antiferromagnetic order. This allows any information stored by a magnetic field to be erased. Vortex-like metastable defects have been noticed for intermediate distances. A longitudinal magnetization component at extremely short distances has been noticed as well as specific systems of domain walls. The hysteresis loops and magnetization maps in the particles have been presented for each scenario. The potential applicability of the findings to the fabrication of memory storage devices has been discussed.