Determination of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy based on the magnetic droplet nucleation

Abstract

We propose an alternative method of determining the magnetic anisotropy field μ0HK in ferro-/ferrimagnets. On the basis of the droplet nucleation model, there exists linearity between domain-wall (DW) energy density and in-plane magnetic field. We find that the slope is simply represented by μ0HK and Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI). By measuring the in-plane magnetic field dependence of the coercivity field, closely corresponding to the DW energy density, a robust value for μ0HK can be quantified. This robust value can be used to determine μ0HK over a wide range of values, overcoming the limitations caused by the small strength of the external magnetic field typically used in experiments.