Temperature dependence of the threshold magnetic field for nucleation and domain wall propagation in an inhomogeneous structure with grain boundary

Abstract

In order to study the dependence of the coercive force of sintered magnets on temperature, nucleation and domain wall propagation at the grain boundary are studied as rate-determining processes of the magnetization reversal phenomena in magnets consisting of bulk hard magnetic grains contacting via grain boundaries of a soft magnetic material. These systems have been studied analytically for a continuum model at zero temperature (A. Sakuma, et al. J. Mag. Mag. Mat. {\bf 84} 52 (1990)). In the present study, the temperature dependence is studied by making use of the stochastic Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation at finite temperatures. In particular, the threshold fields for nucleation and domain wall propagation are obtained as functions of ratios of magnetic interactions and anisotropies of the soft and hard magnets for various temperatures. It was found that the threshold field for domain wall propagation is robust against thermal fluctuations, while that for nucleation is fragile. The microscopic mechanisms of the observed temperature dependence are discussed.