Magnetostatic interaction fields in first-order-reversal-curve diagrams

The contribution of magnetostatic interaction fields in magnetic systems during first-order-reversal-curve (FORC) simulations has been systematically addressed using a dynamic micromagnetic algorithm. The interaction field distributions (IFD) display a nonlinear dependency on the field history and intergrain spacing, and are commonly asymmetric. The IFDs tend to be more Gaussian on average than Cauchian as predicted analytically for disordered systems, due to ordering during FORC diagram determination. The spreading of the FORC distribution in the vertical direction of the FORC diagram is shown to be directly related to the mean standard deviation of the IFD during the FORC measurement, with a small offset related to the smoothing factor. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.