The static and dynamic, quantum and classical properties of antiferromagnets (AFMs) are discussed from a unified point of view. Attention is directed mainly toward mesoscopic magnets, i.e., materials with characteristic scales of nonuniformities of the order of atomic dimensions. The creation of such materials and their study and application have largely shaped the face of the physics of our day. This class includes small magnetic particles and their arrays, magnetic superlattices and clusters, and high-spin molecules. The traditional problems of the physics of antiferromagnetism are also discussed (symmetry analysis of AFMs, reorientation transitions, equations of spin dynamics), but they are represented only to the extent that it is useful to do so for subsequent consideration of the quantum and classical properties of mesoscopic AFMs. For description of the spin dynamics of AFMs, a magnetic Lagrangian of a form matched with the quantum-mechanical Hamiltonian is constructed. The lowering of the symmetry of the AFMs, both that due to conventional causes such as an external magnetic field and that due to the partial decompensation of the sublattice spins, is taken into account. The latter effect is especially important for mesoscopic particles of AFMs of the ferrite type. The influence of defects and of the surface on the reorientation transitions in AFMs is discussed in detail. These effects, which are of fundamental importance for the description of small particles of AFMs, are observed for magnetic superlattices with an antiferromagnetic interaction of the elements of the superlattices. The description of macroscopic quantum effects in mesoscopic AFMs plays a prominent role. The spin Lagrangian obtained describes new tunneling effects such as an oscillatory dependence of the tunneling probability on magnetic field. Quantum effects in magnetic systems with a nonuniform ground state are investigated. These effects can be described as the change due to processes of tunneling of the topological charges of various natures that characterize these states.
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August 2005
Research Article|
August 01 2005
Mesoscopic antiferromagnets: statics, dynamics, and quantum tunneling (Review)
B. A. Ivanov
B. A. Ivanov
Institute of Magnetism of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, pr. Vernadskogo 36b, Kiev 03142, Ukraine
Taras Shevchenko National University, pr. Glushkova 2, Kiev 03127, Ukraine
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Low Temp. Phys. 31, 635–667 (2005)
Citation
B. A. Ivanov; Mesoscopic antiferromagnets: statics, dynamics, and quantum tunneling (Review). Low Temp. Phys. 1 August 2005; 31 (8): 635–667. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2008127
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