Magnetic Tetrastability in a Spin Chain

TL;DR

This paper introduces a spin chain with four stable magnetic states, enabling potential four-bit data storage, which could significantly increase magnetic storage density.

Contribution

It demonstrates, through numerical and analytical methods, the existence of four energy-equivalent states in a specific spin chain with a canting angle of π/4.

Findings

Identifies four stable magnetic states in the spin chain.

Analyzes domain wall properties affecting magnetization relaxation.

Suggests potential for four-bit information encoding.

Abstract

Bistability in magnetism has been extensively used, in particular to store information. Here we propose an alternative route by using tetrastable magnetic domains. Using numerical and analytical calculations we show that a spin chain with a canting angle of {\pi}/4 possesses four energy-equivalent states. We discuss the static properties of such chain such as the profile and the energy of the domain walls as they govern the relaxation of the magnetization. The realisation of such spin chain could enable the encoding of the information on four bits which is a potential alternative toward the increase of storage density.