Properties of the interface in the confined Ising magnet with competing surface fields

E. V. ALBANO; A. DE VIRGILIIS; M. MUELLER; K. BINDER

PHYSICA B - CONDENSED MATTER

Año: 2007 vol. 389 p. 202 - 205

0921-4526

A two-dimensional magnetic Ising system confined in an L×D geometry (LD) in the presence of competing magnetic fields (h) acting at opposite walls along the D-direction, exhibits an interface between domains of different orientation that run parallel to the walls. In the limit L→∞, this interface undergoes a wetting transition that occurs at the critical curve Tw(h), so that for T<Tw(h) such an interface is bound to the walls, while for Tw(h)T<Tcb the interface is freely fluctuating around the center of the film, where Tcb is the bulk critical temperature. By considering both short- and long-range magnetic fields acting at the walls, we study the divergence of the (equilibrated) average position of the interface when approaching the wetting critical point. Furthermore, starting from a monodomain structure with the interface bound to one wall, we also study the dynamics of the interface unbinding.