Regensburg 2010 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 1: Statistical Physics (general) I

DY 1.1: Vortrag

Montag, 22. März 2010, 10:15–10:30, H47

Magnetic Anisotropy due to the Casimir Effect — •Georgo Metalidis¹ and Patrick Bruno² — ¹Institut für Theoretische Festkörperphysik, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, D-76131 Karlsruhe, Germany — ²European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, BP 220, F-38043 Grenoble Cedex, France

We show that the Casimir interaction between a ferromagnetic and a non-magnetic mirror gives rise to a magnetic anisotropy in the ferromagnetic layer. The anisotropy is out-of-plane for an optically isotropic non-magnetic plate. If the non-magnetic plate has a uniaxial optical anisotropy (with optical axis in the plate plane), we find an in-plane magnetic anisotropy. In both cases, the magnetization orientation with the lowest energy is given by the competition between polar, longitudinal and transverse contributions to the magneto-optical Kerr effect, and will depend on the interplate distance. Results for a magnetic plate made out of iron, and non-magnetic plates of gold (optically isotropic), quartz, calcite and barium titanate (all uniaxially birefringent) are presented.