Scaling properties of a ferromagnetic thin film model at the depinning transition

TL;DR

This study investigates the scaling behavior of a ferromagnetic thin film model at the depinning transition, revealing global and local scaling anomalies, and the emergence of KPZ-like nonlinearity near criticality.

Contribution

The paper introduces a (1+1)-dimensional model for magnetic domain wall avalanches, analyzing its scaling properties and nonlinear behavior at the depinning transition, with novel insights into interface dynamics.

Findings

Global interface width follows Family-Vicsek scaling with specific exponents.

The saturated average velocity vanishes slowly near the transition with a small exponent.

The model exhibits a KPZ-like nonlinearity that diminishes approaching the depinning point.

Abstract

In this paper, we perform a detailed study of the scaling properties of a ferromagnetic thin film model. Recently, interest has increased in the scaling properties of the magnetic domain wall (MDW) motion in disordered media when an external driving field is present. We consider a (1+1)-dimensional model, based on evolution rules, able to describe the MDW avalanches. The global interface width of this model shows Family-Vicsek scaling with roughness exponent $\zeta\simeq 1.585$ and growth exponent $\beta\simeq 0.975$. In contrast, this model shows scaling anomalies in the interface local properties characteristic of other systems with depinning transition of the MDW, e.g. quenched Edwards-Wilkinson (QEW) equation and random-field Ising model (RFIM) with driving. We show that, at the depinning transition, the saturated average velocity $v_\mathrm{sat}\sim f^\theta$ vanished very slowly (with $\theta\simeq 0.037$) when the reduced force $f=p/p_\mathrm{c}-1\to 0^{+}$. The simulation results show that this model verifies all accepted scaling relations which relate the global exponents and the correlation length (or time) exponents, valid in systems with depinning transition. Using the interface tilting method, we show that the model, close to the depinning transition, exhibits a nonlinearity similar to the one included in the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) equation. The nonlinear coefficient $\lambda\sim f^{-\phi}$ with $\phi\simeq -1.118$, which implies that $\lambda\to 0$ as the depinning transition is approached, a similar qualitatively behaviour to the driven RFIM. We conclude this work by discussing the main features of the model and the prospects opened by it.