https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510050984
Effective scaling behavior of magnetization and Hamming distance in Ising thin films under a surface field
1
Departamento de Física,
Universidade Federal do Ceará, 60470-455 Fortaleza CE, Brazil
2
Departamento de Física,
Universidade Federal de Alagoas, 57072-970 Maceió AL, Brazil
Corresponding author: a marcelo@ising.fis.ufal.br
Received:
29
March
1999
Revised:
21
April
1999
Published online: 15 November 1999
The recent improvements on the technology for developing high-quality thin magnetic films has renewed the interest in the study of surface effects in both static and dynamic magnetic responses. In this work, we use a Monte-Carlo algorithm with Metropolis dynamics together with a spreading of damage technique to study the interplay between the effects of finite thickness and surface ordering field in thin ferromagnetic Ising (S=1/2) films. We calculate, near the bulk critical temperature and several values of the surface field, the dependence on the film thickness of the average magnetization M and Hamming distance D. We employ a finite size scaling analysis to show that both obey an effective one-parameter scaling but exhibit distinct characteristic surface fields. At their corresponding characteristic surface fields both M and D become roughly thickness independent and we estimate the critical exponent characterizing the behavior of the typical scaling lengths.
PACS: 75.70.Ak – Magnetic properties of monolayers and thin films / 75.40.Mg – Numerical simulation studies / 75.40.Cx – Static properties (order parameter, static susceptibility, heat capacities, critical exponents, etc.)
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 1999