Cylindrical domain structure in metamagnets and its stability conditions

The possibility of the existence of a cylindrical magnetic domain structure near the first-order phase transition line is investigated theoretically in metamagnets, compounds with anisotropy energy substantially exceeding the exchange interaction energy. The domain structure of such compounds is related to the kinetics of the transition from the paramagnetic to the antiferromagnetic state. The static properties of isolated cylindrical magnetic domains and their equilibrium lattices are studied using an energetic approach. It is shown that for a low-temperature metamagnetic phase transition domains of the existence of a cylindrical domain structure, lattices and isolated cylindrical magnetic domains, abut, on the domain of plane-parallel domain structure existence from both sides. The features of their behavior are determined as a function of the magnitude of the external magnetic fields.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 3, pp. 84–88, March, 1988.The author is grateful to Yu. I. Gorobets for supporting the research and for useful remarks, and also to D. A. Yablonskii and I. M. Vitebskii for fruitful discussions.