Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 067201 (2004) [4 pages]Shape-Dependent Thermal Switching Behavior of Superparamagnetic NanoislandsReceived 3 September 2003; published 12 February 2004 The thermal switching behavior of individual perpendicularly magnetized nanoscale Fe islands consisting of 200–600 atoms only is studied by low-temperature spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy. Our results reveal that the switching rate is strongly affected by the particle shape; i.e., elongated islands switch much more rapidly than compact islands of the same volume. This observation is explained by different processes of magnetization reversal. Our results suggest that compact magnetic particles are an ideal choice for future perpendicular magnetic recording media because they are robust against thermal magnetization reversal. © 2004 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.067201
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.067201
PACS:
75.20.–g, 68.37.Ef, 75.75.+a
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