Influence of the dipole interaction on the direction of the magnetization in thin ferromagnetic films (abstract)

Abstract

The magnetization of thin films depends in a very sensitive way on surface anisotropy fields which often favor a perpendicular orientation and on the dipole interaction which favors an in-plane magnetization. A temperature driven transition from one to the other orientation has been observed experimentally. In order to understand this behavior theoretically we performed detailed calculations of the magnetization of very thin films (thickness of up to 5 layers) within a quantum mechanical mean field approach. A surface anisotropy that favors a perpendicular orientation and a long range dipole interaction were taken into account. It is shown that these competing interactions for certain values of the parameters may result in a temperature driven switching transition from an out-of plane to an in-plane ordered state. Varying the strength of the dipole interaction we found that the switching temperature is a very sensitive function of the ratio of these two competing interactions. A perpendicular ground state magnetization of the film is only found for values of the surface anisotropy which are larger than a critical surface anisotropy value. The reorientation of the magnetization vector has its physical origin in an entropy increase of the system when going from a perpendicular to an in-plane ordered state.