Conferencia Invitada. Titulo: Critical Behaviour and Interfacial Properties of Confined Magnetic Films.

EZEQUIEL V ALBANO

San Carlos de Bariloche

Congreso; 13th International Conference on Solid Films and Surfaces; 2006

CNEA, Instituto Balseiro.

Critical Behaviour and Interfacial Properties of Confined Magnetic Films.   Ezequiel Vicente Albano Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y Aplicadas (INIFTA), CONICET – UNLP. Casilla de Correo 16, Sucursal 4, (1900) La Plata, Argentina.        An exhaustive numerical investigation of the properties of magnetic films confined in two dimensional (d =2 ) stripped geometries, of size LxM with L << M,  is carried out by means of extensive Monte Carlo simulations. The effect of competing short-range magnetic fields (H) acting along the confinement walls, placed at x = 1 and x = L, is studied. Due to the antisymmetric condition considered, an interface between domains with spins having opposite orientation develops along the M-direction. Such an interface undergoes a localization-delocalization transition that is the precursor of a wetting transition that takes place in the thermodynamic limit. Both the dynamical behaviour and the equilibrium properties of the interface, are discussed. Furthermore, the same geometry is used for the study of the far-form equilibrium growth of magnetic films. In addition to the interface between magnetic domains of different orientation, that also exhibits a non-equilibrium wetting transition, it is shown that the growing interface also undergoes morphological transitions in the growth mode. A comparison of the results obtained under equilibrium conditions and those corresponding to the irreversible growth of magnetic films is performed throughout. Although valuable analogies are encountered, it is found that the non-equilibrium nature of the latter introduces new and richer physical features of interest.