Model calculation for determining local energy minima in the orientation of magnetic domains in terbium-dysprosium-iron single crystals

Abstract

This paper reports on a method which has been developed to track the location of local energy minima in the orientation of magnetic domains in Tb Dy Fe under the action of changing magnetic field and applied stress. The model assumes an array on non-interacting domains. Each domain is initially oriented along one of the 〈111〉 axes and aligns with the local minimum energy at each magnetic field strength. The energy surface was calculated from the sum of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy, field and magnetostrictive energies. The evolution of the energy minima are followed by determining the maximum gradient in the energy surface using the appropriate gradient operator.