Search

Classic experimental data on helium films are transformed to estimate a finite-size phase order parameter that measures the thermal degradation of the condensate fraction in the two-dimensional superfluid. The order parameter is found to evolve thermally with the exponent $\beta = 3 \pi^2/128$, a characteristic, in analogous magnetic systems, of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phase transition. Universal scaling near the BKT fixed point generates a collapse of experimental data on helium and ferromagnetic films, and implies new experiments and theoretical protocols to explore the phase order. These results give a striking example of experimental finite-size scaling in a critical system that is broadly relevant to two-dimensional Bose fluids., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures

We investigate the magnetic properties of a range of low-dimensional ferromagnets using a combination of first-principles calculations and atomistic spin dynamics simulations. This approach allows us to evaluate the ground state and finite temperature properties of experimentally well characterized systems such as Co/Cu(111), Co/Cu(001), Fe/Cu(001) and Fe/W(110), for different thicknesses of the magnetic layer. We compare our calculated spin wave spectra with experimental data available in the literature, and find a good quantitative agreement. We also predict magnon spectra for systems for which no experimental data exist at the moment, and estimate the role of temperature effects., Comment: 21 pages, 14 figures

The magnetization dynamics of a synthetic antiferromagnet subject to a short magnetic field pulse, has been studied by using a combination of first-principles and atomistic spin dynamics simulations. We observe switching phenomena on the time scale of tens of picoseconds, and inertia-like behavior in the magnetization dynamics. We explain the latter in terms of a dynamic redistribution of magnetic energy from the applied field pulse to other possible energy terms, such as the exchange interaction and the magnetic anisotropy, without invoking concepts such as inertia of an antiferromagnetic vector. We also demonstrate that such dynamics can also be observed in a ferromagnetic material where the incident field pulse pumps energy to the magnetic anisotropy.

Artificial spin ice arrays of micromagnetic islands are a means of engineering additional energy scales and frustration into magnetic materials. Despite much progress in elucidating the properties of such arrays, the `spins' in the systems studied so far have no thermal dynamics as the kinetic constraints are too high. Here we address this problem by using a material with an ordering temperature near room temperature. By measuring the temperature dependent magnetization in different principal directions, and comparing with simulations of idealized statistical mechanical models, we confirm a dynamical `pre-melting' of the artificial spin ice structure at a temperature well below the intrinsic ordering temperature of the island material. We thus create a spin ice array that has real thermal dynamics of the artificial spins over an extended temperature range.

We examine the experimental absence of standing spin wave modes in thin magnetic films, by means of atomistic spin dynamics simulations. Using Co on Cu(001) as a model system, we demonstrate that by increasing the number of layers, the "optical" branches predicted from adiabatic first-principles calculations are strongly suppressed, in agreement with spin-polarized electron energy loss spectroscopy measurements reported in the literature. Our results suggest that a dynamical analysis of the Heisenberg model is sufficient in order to capture the strong damping of the standing modes., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Fig. 3 changed, Fig. 4 added

We study the Fe/W(110) monolayer system through a combination of first principles calculations and atomistic spin dynamics simulations. We focus on the dispersion of the spin waves parallel to the [001] direction. Our results compare favorably with the experimental data of Prokop et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 177206], and correctly capture a drastic softening of the magnon spectrum, with respect to bulk bcc Fe. The suggested shortcoming of the itinerant electron model, in particular that given by density functional theory, is refuted. We also demonstrate that finite temperature effects are significant, and that atomistic spin dynamics simulations represent a powerful tool with which to include these., Comment: v1: 11 pages, 3 figures. v2: double column, 5 pages, 3 figures, typos corrected, references added

Two dimensional condensed matter is realised in increasingly diverse forms that are accessible to experiment and of potential technological value. The properties of these systems are influenced by many length scales and reflect both generic physics and chemical detail. To unify their physical description is therefore a complex and important challenge. Here we investigate the distribution of experimentally estimated critical exponents, $\beta$, that characterize the evolution of the order parameter through the ordering transition. The distribution is found to be bimodal and bounded within a window $\sim 0.1 \le \beta \le 0.25$, facts that are only in partial agreement with the established theory of critical phenomena. In particular, the bounded nature of the distribution is impossible to reconcile with existing theory for one of the major universality classes of two dimensional behaviour - the XY model with four fold crystal field - which predicts a spectrum of non-universal exponents bounded only from below. Through a combination of numerical and renormalization group arguments we resolve the contradiction between theory and experiment and demonstrate how the "universal window" for critical exponents observed in experiment arises from a competition between marginal operators., Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures and 6 tables. Uses longtable package