Morphological stability of strained magnetic films against undulation

Abstract

The morphological stability of a strained magnetic film on a substrate against surface undulation is investigated by considering the total energy change during the surface undulation process. The energy change is calculated by the first-order boundary perturbation method, taking into account the effects of the strain energy, the surface energy, and the magnetic energy. The results show that the flat film morphology of the system can be stabilized by a lateral magnetic field. The stabilizing effects may decay or increase with the film thickness, depending on the magnetic properties of the film. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.