Introducing a domain flexing function in the Jiles–Atherton hysteresis model

The Jiles-Atherton hysteresis model (J–A model) exhibits a certain unphysical behavior when magnetic excitation reaches or reverses from the extremity of the hysteresis loop. Introducing a domain flexing function, coherent with the magnetic excitation level, improves accuracy of the J–A hysteresis model and at the same time prevents its unphysical behavior. Moreover, applying this function also improves representation of inner (lower excitation level) hysteresis loops. Implementation of magnetic excitation dependence in the domain flexing function adds a valuable parameter to the J–A original model on the way towards its further optimization. In the proposed hysteresis model, genetic algorithms are used in parameters optimization.     

Simulation of hysteresis loops for polycrystalline ferroelectrics by an extensive Landau-type model

Landau-type phenomenological theory is extended to the polycrystalline ferroelectrics by defining a volume fraction of polarization to simulate polarization hysteresis loops. Using this simple model, polarization hysteresis loops of a model Pb(Zr_0.52Ti_0.48)O₃ ceramic at different fields or temperatures are simulated, it is found that our results are in very good agreement with the experimental data for the saturated as well as the unsaturated loops. Moreover, this model can accurately predict the coercive fields and remnant polarizations under arbitrary applied fields.     

Different pathways in mechanical unfolding/folding cycle of a single semiflexible polymer

Kinetics of conformational change of a semiflexible polymer under mechanical external field were investigated with Langevin dynamics simulations. It is found that a semiflexible polymer exhibits large hysteresis in mechanical folding/unfolding cycle even with a slow operation, whereas in a flexible polymer, the hysteresis almost disappears at a sufficiently slow operation. This suggests that the essential features of the structural transition of a semiflexible polymer should be interpreted at least on a two-dimensional phase space. The appearance of such large hysteresis is discussed in relation to different pathways in the loading and unloading processes. By using a minimal two-variable model, the hysteresis loop is described in terms of different pathways on the transition between two stable states.     

Study of beam-fanning hysteresis in photo- refractive SBN:Ce: light-induced and primary scattering as functions of polar structure

We study light-induced scattering (beam-fanning) in the photorefractive crystal SBN:Ce as a function of the polar structure of the crystal. The spatial structure of the beam-fanning is measured at different externally applied electric fields, and an optical hysteresis is found in the scattering. It is shown that the scattering hysteresis results from a polarization hysteresis typical for ferroelectrics in the polar phase. New information about primary scattering in SBN is obtained, and a corresponding model of its origin is proposed. It is shown that the intensity and angular distribution of the primary scattering strongly depend on the polar structure of the crystal and can be affected by the subsequent action of an external field and coherent illumination. Received: 27 August 2002 / Revised version: 19 December 2002 / Published online: 26 March 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. E-mail: mirco.imlau@uni-osnabrueck.de     

Droplets on inclined rough surfaces

The behaviour of liquid droplets on inclined heterogeneous surfaces was simulated by the lattice-Boltzmann method using the Shan-Chen multiphase model. The effect of topography of the surface on the contact angle hysteresis was investigated. It is shown in particular, by using anisotropic rough surfaces, how surface topography and thereby the continuity of the three-phase contact line, affect this hysteresis. Our results clearly indicate that the superhydrophobicity of a surface cannot be judged by the contact angle alone.     

Extraction of hysteresis loops from main magnetization curves

In firm catalogues,the basic properties of magnetic materials are often described by their main magnetization curves. Such curves may be used for the first analysis of circuits containing ferromagnetic cores. The analysis will be more accurate, if the curves are transformed into the families of hysteresis loops. To enable the reconstruction of such loops, we formulate a simple model of hysteresis, making main magnetization curve directly dependent on coercivity. In this way we can approximate hysteresis loops of most typical materials in a pretty wide range of magnetization. Application of variable coercivity enables extension of the model to stronger fields.     

Dynamic hysteresis in ferroelectric systems: experiment and Monte Carlo simulation

A Monte Carlo algorithm for dynamic hysteresis simulation in ferroelectric spin systems is developed based on a DIFFOUR model in which the local spontaneous polarization is defined by the double-well potential energy and the nearest-neighbor spin interaction as well as an external electrical field of variable amplitude and frequency. A direct measurement of the hysteresis loop for ferroelectric Pb(Zr_0.52Ti_0.48)O₃ thin film capacitors using the Sawyer–Tower technique is performed. Significant dependence of the hysteresis shape and pattern on the external field is revealed. Direct imaging of the simulated domain pattern indicates serious suppression of the domain switching over the high-frequency range. The evaluated scaling relations from the simulation for remanence, coercivity, and the area of the hysteresis over the low-frequency range are supported by theoretical predictions and experiments, but the high-frequency scaling behaviors as derived are different from one and another. Received: 23 January 2001 / Accepted: 17 August 2001 / Published online: 20 December 2001     

Ferroelectric Properties of Polycrystalline Ceramics with Dipolar Defect Simulated from the Potts--Ising Model

Physical properties of polycrystailine ferroelectrics including the contributions of the fixed dipolar defects and the average grain size in the Potts-Ising model are simulated by using the Monte Carlo method. Domain pattern, hysteresis loop and switching current of the polarization reversal process are obtained. Two processes are considered in our simulation. In the first one, the grain texture of ferroelectric ceramics are produced from the Ports model, and then the Ising model is implemented in the obtained polycrystailine texture to produce the domain pattern, hysteresis loop and switching current. It is concluded that the defect has the ability to decrease the remnant polarization P~ as well as the coercive field E~. The back switching is obviously observed after the electric field is off, and it shows some variation after introducing the fixed dipolar defect. Meanwhile, the spike of the switching current is found to lower with the increasing defect concentration and the decreasing average grain size.     

Asymmetrically shaped hysteresis loop in exchange-biased FeNi/FeMn film

The magnetization reversal of the bilayer polycrystalline FeNi(50 Å)/FeMn(50 Å) film sputtered in a magnetic field has been studied by magnetic and magneto-optical techniques. The external magnetic fields were applied along the easy or hard magnetization axis of the ferromagnetic permalloy layer. The asymmetry of hysteresis loop has been found. Appreciable asymmetry and the exchange bias were observed only in the field applied along the easy axis. The specific features of magnetization reversal were explained within the phenomenological model that involves high-order exchange anisotropy and misalignment of the easy axes of the antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic layers. It has been shown that the film can exist in one of three equilibrium magnetic states in the field applied along the easy axis. The transitions between these states occur as first-order phase transitions. The observed hysteresis loop asymmetry is related to the existence of the metastable state.     

Observation of zero creep in piezoelectric actuators

Piezoelectric actuators are frequently used nowadays in a wide variety of positioning devices. Although very suitable for small displacements in the range of nm to several hundreds of μm, the actuators always suffer from hysteresis and creep between the input voltage and resulting displacements. In scanning applications, the input voltage is often used as an indicator of the induced displacement. This procedure can result in a large position error depending on the amount of hysteresis and creep. In order to describe and control hysteretic systems various models for hysteresis have been published but little is known about relaxation and creep in piezo materials. In this paper we present detailed studies of the hysteretic behavior and piezo relaxation and creep. We have identified certain locations on the hysteresis loop that exhibit zero creep. From this observation, a more fundamental relation between the amount of creep and the local slope of the hysteresis loop and the virgin curve is presented. This observation could be useful in both open-loop and closed-loop position control, since it allows quantification of the creep. Futhermore, the experimentally observed relation between the creep and the hysteresis suggests a reduction of the creep for non-hysteretic transfers. First measurements on a system with reduced hysteresis support this hypothesis. Received: 15 February 1999 / Accepted: 16 February 1999 / Published online: 28 April 1999     

Hysteresis in current transport in a GaAs diode containing self-assembled InAs quantum dots

We have observed hysteresis loops in current transport in a GaAs metal–semiconductor–metal diode containing InAs quantum dots. The dots in our structure are directly embedded under the GaAs–metal interface. The charging and discharging of electrons in the dots modulate the current and produce hysteresis. These processes are controlled by the applied voltages. The dots are charged by forward current flowing through the structure. The discharging of the electrons is dominated by the tunneling process under high reverse bias. The modulated currents are well fitted with an electron-trapping model considering both the ground states and the excited states of the quantum dots. Received: 5 October 2000 / Accepted: 12 December 2000 / Published online: 23 May 2001     

Helical close packings of ideal ropes

An adsorption-desorption (or parking-lot) model can reproduce qualitatively the densification kinetics and other features of a weakly vibrated granular material. Here we study the the two-time correlation and response functions of the model and demonstrate that their behavior is consistent with recently observed memory effects in granular materials. Although the densification kinetics and hysteresis are robust properties, we show that the aging behavior of the adsorption-desorption model is different from other models of granular compaction. We propose an experimental test to distinguish the possible aging behaviors. Received 26 February 2001     

Phase Diagram of Antiferromagnetically Exchange-Coupled Bilayer

Magnetic hysteresis properties of antiferromagnetically exchange-coupled bilayer structures, in which the two magnetic layers have different magnetic parameters and thicknesses, are studied within the framework of the Stoner-Wohlfarth model. Analytical expressions for the switching fields corresponding to the linear magnetic states are obtained. By adjusting the magnetic parameters or thicknesses of layers, nine different types of easy-axis hysteresis loops may exist. The phase diagram of easy-axis hysteresis loops is mapped in the k1 and k2 plane, where k1 and k2 are the ratios of magnetic anisotropy to the interlayer exchange coupling of the two magnetic layers, respectively.     

Dielectric and interfacial properties of InP plasma-grown oxides

Methods of dielectric analysis have been employed to investigate the frequency dispersion of InP-oxide dielectric in MOS and MOM devices. The Cole-Cole empirical method has indicated a wide range of relaxation time for the interfacial polarization. This has been interpreted in terms of a model of carrier injection from the gate metal into the oxide gap states. The model is proposed in conjunction with the anomalous hysteresis in the MOM C-V characteristics and could be applied to other MIS systems.Formerly with the department of Engineering, Cambridge University, U.K.     

A modified NaSch model with density-dependent randomization for traffic flow

Based on the Nagel-Schreckenberg (NaSch) model of traffic flow, a modified cellular automaton (CA) traffic model with the density-dependent randomization (abbreviated as the DDR model) is proposed to simulate traffic flow. The fundamental diagram obtained by simulation shows the ability of this modified NaSch model to capture the essential features of traffic flow, e.g., synchronized flow, metastable state, hysteresis and phase separation at higher densities. Comparisons are made between this DDR model and the NaSch model, also between this DDR model and the VDR model. And the underlying mechanism is analyzed. All these results indicate that the presented model is reasonable and more realistic.     

Exchange bias and asymmetric hysteresis loops from a microscopic model of core/shell nanoparticles

We present Monte Carlo simulations of hysteresis loops of a model of a magnetic nanoparticle with a ferromagnetic core and an antiferromagnetic shell with varying values of the core/shell interface exchange coupling which aim to clarify the microscopic origin of exchange bias observed experimentally. We have found loop shifts in the field direction as well as displacements along the magnetization axis that increase in magnitude when increasing the interfacial exchange coupling. Overlap functions computed from the spin configurations along the loops have been obtained to explain the origin and magnitude of these features microscopically.     

Abnormal hysteresis effect and phase transitions in a velocity-difference dependent randomization CA model

Additional to the basic Nagel-Schreckenberg model for single-lane traffic flow, we consider the effect of the velocity-difference between two successive vehicles on the randomization of the latter one. This modification improves the transit capacity of the model, which results in a much higher simulated flux. Moreover, in a circular road, this model simulates an abnormal hysteresis effect. The characteristic shape of hysteresis curves may shed some light on the distinguish of synchronized flow and jams.     

Intrinsic room-temperature ferromagnetism of V-doped TiO2 (B) nanotubes synthesized by the hydrothermal method

Nanotubes of TiO₂(B) phase doped with 5 at.% of vanadium (V) have been synthesized by a hydrothermal method, followed by calcination at 300 °C in air and argon atmosphere, respectively. These nanotubes exhibit ferromagnetic character with clear hysteresis loop at room-temperature. X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirm that the ferromagnetic behavior is intrinsic to the material and not due to other phases and/or metallic clusters. The photoluminescence and hysteresis loop characteristics are found to be dependent on calcination conditions, and implicate the role of oxygen vacancies. Existence of higher oxygen vacancies in V-doped TiO₂(B) nanotubes synthesized in argon than the air atmosphere is supported by the room-temperature photoluminescence spectra. The enhanced ferromagnetic behavior observed in V-doped TiO₂(B) nanotubes synthesized in argon than the air atmosphere is explained in terms of bound magnetic polaron (BMP) model.