Ultra-thin magnetic films and the structural glass transition: a modelling analogy

FRANCISCO ANTONIO TAMARIT; SERGIO ALEJANDRO CANNAS; PABLO MARTÍN GLEISER; DANIEL ADRIÁN STARIOLO

Complexity, metastability and nonextensivity

Springer

Año: 2005; p. 220 - 229

In this work we study a two dimensional Ising model for ultra-thin magnetic films which presents competition between short range ferromagnetic interactions and long-range antiferromagnetic dipolar interactions. We present evidence that the dynamical and thermodynamical properties of the model allow for an alternative interpretation, in terms of glass forming liquids. In particular, the existence of a frst order phase transition between a low temperature crystal-like ordered phase a high temperature liquid-like disordered phase, which can be supercooled below the melting point, together with a drastic slowing down after a quench to low temperatures suggest that these materialscould present a phenomenology similar to that observed in glass forming liquids.