We numerically study the thermal stability properties of computer memory storage realized by a magnetic ellipse. In the case of practical magnetic random-access memory devices, the bit can form a spin texture during switching events. To study the energy barrier for thermally-induced switching, we develop a variational procedure to force the bit to traverse a smooth path through configuration space between the points of stability. We identify textured configurations realizing domain-wall propagation, which may have an energy barrier less than that of the corresponding monodomain model. We contrast the emergence of such micromagnetic effects in thermal versus field-induced switching.
@article{arxiv.1202.2901,
title = {Magnetic bit stability: Competition between domain-wall and monodomain switching},
author = {Silas Hoffman and Yaroslav Tserkovnyak and Pedram Khalili Amiri and Kang L. Wang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1202.2901},
year = {2015}
}