Image courtesy: S. Hill Thompson, G. Brown, P.A. Rikvold

Nanometer sized magnetic particles and ultrathin magnetic films are important materials for components of future electronic technologies, such as ultra-high density recording media and memories. The SCS Materials Science group (Prof. Rikvold and collaborators) use large-scale computer simulations to study the dynamics of magnetization reversal in such structures. Their work is funded by the National Science Foundation.

The picture shows several stages of the simulated magnetization reversal in a model of a 10x10x150 nm iron pillar. Such pillars are produced experimentally by the group of Stephan von Molnar at FSU's Center for materials Research and Technology (MARTECH). The left picture shows the pillar at a temperature of 0 K, with its magnetization opposite to the direction of an applied magnetic field (red). The middle picture shows the same state at a temperature of 20 K. Thermal fluctuations are clearly visible. In the right picture the reversal to a magnetization parallel to the applied field (blue) is almost completed. These simulations can take several weeks on FSU's supercomputers.