Micromagnetics of ferromagnetic equilateral triangular prisms

Abstract

A systematic study of micromagnetic configurations in thin equilateral triangular prisms as a function of lateral size and thickness is reported. The resulting map of a micromagnetic ground state is presented in the form of a micromagnetic phase diagram with two regions corresponding to buckle and Y-state configurations. These configurations led to the formation of a configurational anisotropy field, an ab initio calculation of which is presented and the results are compared with experiment. The calculated six-fold symmetric anisotropy field agreed well with experiment but was found to depend on the applied field in phase and magnitude. The anisotropy field dependence on the triangular nanostructure edge roughness was also investigated and related to the stability of the micromagnetic phases.