Simulations of parallel and transverse remanences in textured nano-patterned thin film media

Abstract In this work the effects of dipolar coupling on the distribution of effective orientations in textured nano-patterned media is simulated. The modelled films consist of 50×50 cobalt grains of uniform diameters ( D =20 nm) arranged in hexagonal (triangular) arrays. The grains easy axes are distributed according to a Gaussian texture function with a standard deviation of 30° about the texture direction. For different array separations ( d ), the distribution of anisotropy orientations is extracted from the simulated parallel M rp ( β ) and transverse M rt ( β ) remanence curves where β is the angle by which the film is rotated. For the non-interacting case, predictions show that, M rt ( β )=d M rp ( β )/d β which is consistent with Shrikman and Treves theory whereas for the interacting case, M rt ( β ) is deviated from d M rp ( β )/d β . The extracted distribution of effective orientations is found to become narrower as the array separation is decreased which is due to dipolar-induced texturing effects.