Surface roughness effects on magnetic properties of thin films: A computational Monte Carlo study
Ahmad Al-Qawasmeh, Mohammad Badarneh, Abdalla Obeidat, Sufian Abedrabbo
Abstract
By means of Monte Carlo simulation, a computational approach is proposed to investigate the surface roughness effects on the critical and hysteresis behaviors of Heisenberg ferromagnetic thin films. Here, the atomic sites of the film’s surface are changed systematically from their regular positions using a disorder parameter, thereby allowing us to smoothly interpolate between smooth and rough surfaces. Threshold values of the structural disorder level at which the system critical temperature increases are identified. Furthermore, the surface roughness increases is observed to have a profound impact on the system’s magnetic hysteresis loops. In particular, a significant increase in the loop’s area is observed as the roughness increases, thereby increasing the coercivity of the thin magnetic film.