Magnetism of PrAl nanoparticle investigated with a quantum simulation model

For many years, micromagnetism and Monte Carlo simulation have served as the two main tools for studying the magnetic structures and physical properties of nanomagnets. However, the two approaches are based on classical physics, and thus lack the flexibility to deal with complex nanosystems, such as those of very tiny size or consisting of ions of different elements. To overcome the difficulty, a quantum simulation model has been proposed and a new computational algorithm developed in the present work. Both have been successfully applied to an assumed PrAl nanoparticle to study its magnetic behavior in external magnetic fields exerted along the crystal axes. The theoretical results obtained with the model and the new algorithm are reasonable physically and exhibit strong finite-size effects. The model can be generalized to study the magnetic configurations and physical properties of more complicated nanosystems, such as nanowires, nanotubes, etc. © 2011 IOP Publishing Ltd.