Hysteresis in soft magnetic elements: a comparative study of experimental observations and micromagnetic modelling

Summary form only given. Most current modelling of patterned soft ferromagnetic films is based on direct numerical simulation. Although this is certainly the tool of choice for the study of dynamic switching, it is quite natural to seek a more analytic understanding of domain patterns starting from equilibrium configurations. For this purposed the use of reduced or simplified models is particularly helpful. In this paper we study the evolution of domain patterns in Permalloy film elements under an in-plane applied field by means of both theory and experiment. Equilibrium configurations for square samples and the associated ´robust´ quantities are computed numerically using the reduced theory. The numerical results are then compared with experimented observations on square Permalloy shapes (50 mm wide and 230 nm thick), obtained by digitally enhanced Kerr microscopy and supported by magnetooptically measured magnetization curves.