Effect of thermal fluctuations on switching field of deep submicron sized soft magnetic thin film

Abstract

In this article, the effect of thermal fluctuations on switching field at short and long time scales have been investigated by micromagnetic simulation with the Langevin and the time-temperature scaling methods. When the film thickness and/or the aspect ratio are reduced, the switching field decreases substantially owing to the decrease of shape anisotropy and the increase of thermal fluctuation. In the soft magnetic film with a dimension of 0.4 mumx0.2 mumx1 nm, the calculated switching field at a pulse width of 10 ns is 32 Oe, but estimated retention time is less than 1000 s. In such a thermally unstable film, thermally activated switching of magnetization occurs by complex behaviors with creations and annihilations of small and slightly tilted magnetic clusters.