Computer simulation of a thin magnetic film with vertical anisotropy

We describe a discrete micromagnetic model for a thin magnetic layer which has been developed to perform computer simulations of the system. The magnetisation in this model is given in terms of a cubic array of interacting microscopic spins. The dynamics of the spins is given by a time discretisation of the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equations of motion. The array is continued periodically in the x- and y-direction in order to reduce boundary effects, and is finite in the z-direction. The mutual interactions that are incorporated are exchange and dipole interaction, and the crystal lattice interaction is modeled by a roughly vertical uniaxial anisotropy term. The strengths of the different interactions are scaled so as to conform to values for CoCr, fitted to experimental results within the context of continuum models. For this setup we have determined full hysteresis curves and compared with experimental results of these films.