ARTICLE IN PRESS

Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 310 (2007) 24452447

www.elsevier.com/locate/jmmm

py

Magnetic characteristics of ferromagnetic nanotube

Jehyun Leea,b,, Dieter Suessb, Thomas Schrec, Kyu Hwan Oha, Josef Fidlerb
a

Available online 30 November 2006

co

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea
Institute of Solid State Physics, Vienna University of Technology, Wiedner HauptstraX e 8-10, 1140 Vienna, Austria
c
Department of Engineering Materials, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield, UK

al

Abstract

rs

on

Micromagnetic simulations are performed to study the magnetic and electromagnetic properties of a ferromagnetic tube. Hysteresis
loops and possible equilibrium states are observed with external eld applied perpendicular and parallel to the tube axis. We found an
equilibrium state, which is composed of two oppositely directed vortices, with a domain wall between them. The anisotropic
magnetoresistance (AMR) was estimated at every point of the hysteresis loops, in order to investigate its potentiality as an electric device
in nano/micro device. As a result, we found that our system can be used as a magnetic sensor that behaves differently according to the
magnetic eld direction.
r 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
PACS: 75.60.C; 72.15.G; 75.60

pe

Keywords: Ferromagnet nanotube; Magnetic domain; Anisotropic magnetoresistance; Micromagnetics

1. Introduction

Au

th
o

r's

In recent years, nanosized magnetic structures such as

dots, cylinders and wires were studied for fundamental
and technological interest. A great deal of attention was
focused on their magnetic behaviors and internal magnetic
states because they are believed to have potential applications for magnetic memory, sensor and logical devices [1].
Ferromagnetic tubes are considered as a candidate for
recording head, biomagnetic sensors and nanomedicine,
and catalysts, because of its expected vortex magnetization
state and oatibility in the liquid due to the empty inside
[24]. Recently, Nielsch et al. [5] reported the electrochemical fabrication method and measured magnetic
characteristics, and analytical study of the phase diagram
of magnetic nanotube is reported by others [6]. They
showed the experimental hysteresis loops and the theoretically expected equilibrium state. However, the transient
Corresponding author. School of Materials Science and Engineering,
Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Republic of Korea.
Tel.: +82 2 880 8306.
E-mail address: jehyun.lee@gmail.com (J. Lee).

0304-8853/$ - see front matter r 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmmm.2006.10.1137

state and electromagnetic characters are not studied for the

restriction of the calculation system. In this work, we
introduced and performed micromagnetics simulation on a
nanotube, focusing on its magnetic switching process and
electromagnetic property, anisotropic magnetoresistance
(AMR).

2. Micromagnetics simulation
The numerical computer simulations were carried out
using a three-dimensional hybrid nite element/boundary
element micromagnetic code [7]. The effective eld consists
of exchange eld, uni-directional crystalline anisotropy eld,
external eld and magnetostatic eld. A ferromagnetic tube
nite element model is prepared, of height 1000 nm, inner
diameter and outer diameter of 300 and 500 nm, respectively. Permalloy is assumed to the material, the parameters
are as follows: saturation polarization J s 1:0 T, exchange
constant A 13 pJ=m and the anisotropy constant K u 0.
We applied an external eld perpendicular (x-direction) and
parallel to the tube axis (z-direction). The initial magnetization is randomly oriented.

ARTICLE IN PRESS
J. Lee et al. / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 310 (2007) 24452447

2446

co

on

al

Fig. 2. Magnetic energy comparison between the ferromagnet state

(F state) and vortex state (V state). Each symbol indicates the total
magnetic energy (square), exchange energy (circle) and magnetostatic
energy (triangle).

Au

th
o

r's

pe

rs

Equilibrium state is obtained by two ways. The rst way

is by minimizing the total magnetic energy from the
randomly magnetized initial state. The second is nding a
remanent state from the hysteresis curve with an external
eld applied parallel to the tube axis. These two methods
conclude the same equilibrium states, which is shown in
Fig. 1, and two oppositely directed vortices separated by a
domain wall. The reason is believed to be the relatively
short tube length compared to the diameters. The
magnetostatic interference between the two tube bases
prevents from rotating in the same direction during the
magnetization process. The shape factors b rin =rout and
g height=rout of our system are 0.6 and 4, respectively.
From the analytic solutions, the energy of the vortex state
is expected to be lower than that of the ferromagnet
state [6], the micromagnetic results are shown in Fig. 2.
Compared to the ferromagnet state the amount of the
decreased magnetostatic energy is much higher than that of
the increased exchange energy.
During the magnetization process, the remanent magnetization (M/Ms) and coercivity when the eld is applied
parallel to tube direction are 0.64 and 0.038 T, and those
with perpendicular eld are 0.19 and 0.036 T, respectively.
The shape of each hysteresis loop agrees well with the
experimental results [5]. The magnetization process along
the tube axis is triggered from the two tube bases, where is
the local maxima of magnetostatic energy is located.
A multi-vortex state is formed during the magnetization
process perpendicular to the tube axis. Several numbers of
vortices are formed on the tube surface, initiated at the
inner surface.
In order to test its potential as an electromagnetic device,
we calculated the maximum deviation of the average angle
y from the hysteresis loops. That maximum deviation
gives us the maximum change of AMR according to the
equation R R0 DR cos2 y. The current direction is
assumed parallel to the z-axis. We use the nite element
mesh to intergrate cos2y numerically over the nanotube
(Fig. 3).
The cos2y varies from 0.044 to 1.0 (z-directional eld)
and from 0.55 to 0.0 (x-directional eld). The equilibrium
state shown in Fig. 1 gives 0.043 as an integrated cos2y over
the sample. Assuming that DR in permalloy is approxi-

py

3. Results and discussion

Fig. 1. Equilibrium state from random initial state. Curling domain wall
(b) is located between the oppositely directed vortices (a) and (c).

Fig. 3. Hysteresis loops (empty circle) and integrated cos2y over the
nanotube (lled circle) along the upper hysteresis curve, decreasing
external eld from 0.4 to 0.4 T. The current (black arrow) is applied
along the tube axis, the external eld (white arrow) is applied parallel
(a) and perpendicular (b) to the tube axis.

ARTICLE IN PRESS
J. Lee et al. / Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 310 (2007) 24452447

mately 5%, this values corresponds to maximum change in

MR of 4.8%.

References
[1] R. Cowburn, M. Welland, Science 287 (2000) 1466.
[2] S. Khizroev, M. Kryder, D. Litvinov, D. Thomson, Appl. Phys. Lett.
81 (2002) 2256.
[3] A. Goldstein, M. Gelb, P. Yager, J. Control. Release 70 (2001) 125.
[4] C.A. Haberzettl, Nanotechnology 13 (2002) R9.
[5] K. Nielsch, F. Castano, S. Matthias, W. Lee, C. Ross, Eng. Mater. 7
(2005) 217.
[6] J. Escrig, P. Landeros, D. Altbir, E.E. Vogel, P. Vargas, J. Magn.
Magn. Mater. 308 (2007) 233.
[7] J. Fidler, T. Schre, J. Phys. D 33 (2000) R135.

4. Conclusion

th
o

r's

pe

rs

on

al

co

py

The potential of ferromagnet nanotube as an effective

magnetic sensor is studied using micromagnetic simulations. The AMR characteristics, which behave oppositely
according to the eld applying directions make it possible
to be used as a biaxial sensor.

Au

2447