Critical single-domain grain sizes in elongated iron particles: implications for meteoritic and lunar magnetism
File(s)Geophys. J. Int.-2015-Muxworthy-578-83.pdf (795.19 KB)
Published version
Author(s)
Muxworthy, AR
Williams, W
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Kamacite particles (Fe–Ni, Ni < 5 per cent), are very common in extra-terrestrial materials, such as meteorites. It is normally assumed that for kamacite particles to be reliable recorders of magnetic fields, they need to be magnetically uniform (single domain, SD) and thermally stable. Larger particles subdivide into non-uniform multidomain (MD) magnetic structures that produce weaker magnetic signals, while small SD particles become magnetically unstable due to thermal fluctuations and exhibit superparamagnetic behaviour. In this paper we determine the first micromagnetic calculation of the stable SD range domain-state phase diagram for metallic iron; previous calculations were analytical. There is a significant increase in the critical size for the SD/MD threshold size, for example, for cube-shaped iron particles, the critical SD/MD threshold has now been estimated to be 25 nm, compared to 17 nm for previous estimates. The larger critical SD/MD threshold size for iron, agrees better with previously published nanometric observations of domain state for FeNi particles, then early analytical models.
Date Issued
2015-07-01
Date Acceptance
2015-04-23
Citation
Geophysical Journal International, 2015, 202 (1), pp.578-583
ISSN
1365-246X
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Start Page
578
End Page
583
Journal / Book Title
Geophysical Journal International
Volume
202
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© The Authors 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal Astronomical Society. This is an Open Access article
distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits
unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits
unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Sponsor
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
Grant Number
NE/H00534X/1
NE/J01334X/1
Subjects
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Numerical approximations and analysis
Magnetic and electrical properties
Rock and mineral magnetism
3-DIMENSIONAL MICROMAGNETIC CALCULATIONS
MAGNETOSOME CRYSTALS
ELECTRON HOLOGRAPHY
ANISOTROPY
DEPENDENCE
REMANENCE
TEMPERATURE
COERCIVITY
TRANSITION
STABILITY
Publication Status
Published