May 31, 2018 18:6 ws-rv961x669 Book Title porter page 1 Chapter 1 Standard Problems in Micromagnetics Donald Porter and Michael Donahue National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8910, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8910, USA
[email protected] Micromagnetics is a continuum model of magnetization processes at the nanome- ter scale. It is largely a computational science, and as such it faces the same issues of clarity, confidence and reproducibility as any computational effort. A curated collection of well-defined reference problems, accepted by and solved by the associated research community, can address these issues by aiding commu- nication and identifying model shortcomings and computational obstacles. This chapter reports on one such collection, called the µMAG Standard Problems, used by the micromagnetic research community. The collection examines hysteresis, scaling across length scales, detailed computation of magnetic energies, magneto- dynamic trajectories, and spin momentum transfer. Each reference problem has proven useful in improving the micromagnetics state of the art. Recommendations distilled from this experience are presented. 1. Introduction The design and function of many modern devices rely on an understanding of pat- terns of magnetization in magnetic materials at the scale of nanometers. Examples include recording heads, field sensors, spin torque oscillators, and nonvolatile mag- netic memory (MRAM). To study such systems researchers employ micromagnetic models, which are continuum models of magnetic materials and magnetization pro- cesses at this scale. These models are encoded in software, and simulations compute predictions of magnetic behavior used both to design devices and to interpret mea- surements at the nanoscale.