Field-induced lattice deformation contribution to the magnetic anisotropy

Elastic and magnetoelastic effects are important to understand physical properties of many magnetic systems. Particularly, the influence of field-induced lattice deformation in the magnetic anisotropy and non-linear terms are commonly needed to describe the magnetic behavior of nanosystems. In this work, we exploit the contribution of field-induced lattice deformation to magnetic anisotropy for systems with hexagonal and cubic structures. Analytical expressions for changes in the first-and second-order magnetic anisotropy constants were obtained for systems which experience general and biaxial strains. Our estimates using bulk parameters available for ferromagnetic materials suggest that field-induced anisotropy contributions can become comparable to magnetocrystalline anisotropy, if the system possesses a strong magnetoelastic response. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4767340]