Asymmetry in Time Evolution of Magnetization in Magnetic Nanostructures

Strong interest in nanomagnetism stems from the promise of high storage densities of information through control of ever smaller and smaller ensembles of spins. There is a broad consensus that the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation reliably describes the magnetization dynamics on classical phenomenological level. On the other hand, it is not so evident that the magnetization dynamics governed by this equation contains built-in asymmetry in the case of broad topology sets of symmetric total energy functional surfaces. The magnetization dynamics in such cases shows preference for one particular state from many energetically equivalent available minima. We demonstrate this behavior on a simple one-spin model which can be treated analytically. Depending on the ferromagnet geometry and material parameters, this asymmetric behavior can be robust enough to survive even at high temperatures opening simplified venues for controlling magnetic states of nanodevices in practical applications. Using micromagnetic simulations we demonstrate the asymmetry in magnetization dynamics in a real system with reduced symmetry such as Pacman-like nanodot. Exploiting the built-in asymmetry in the dynamics could lead to practical methods of preparing desired spin configurations on nanoscale.