Micromagnetic modeling of the heat-assisted switching process in high anisotropy FePt granular thin films

Abstract

The dynamic process of assisted magnetic switchings has been simulated to investigate the associated physics. The model uses a Voronoi construction to determine the physical structure of the nanogranular thin film recording media, and the Landau–Lifshitz–Bloch equation is solved to evolve the magnetic system in time. The reduction of the magnetization is determined over a range of peak system temperatures and for a number of anisotropy values. The results show that the heat-assisted magnetic recording process is not simply magnetization reversal over a thermally reduced energy barrier. To achieve full magnetization reversal (for all anisotropies investigated), an applied field strength of at least 6 kOe is required and the peak system temperature must reach at least the Curie point (Tc). When heated to Tc, the magnetization associated with each grain is destroyed, which invokes the non-precessional linear reversal mode. Reversing the magnetization through this linear reversal mode is favorable, as the reversal time is two orders of magnitude smaller than that associated with precession. Under these conditions, as the temperature decreases to ambient, the magnetization recovers in the direction of the applied field, completing the reversal process. Also, the model produces results that are consistent with the concept of thermal writability; when heating the media to Tc, the smaller grains require a larger field strength to reverse the magnetization.