Breaking the configurational anisotropy in Fe single crystal nanomagnets

In this work, we improve the ability to tailor the switching mechanism in nanomagnets by introducing an additional, highly controlled source of anisotropy: magnetocrystalline anisotropy. We analyze the vortex dynamics in single crystal Fe nanotriangles with different orientations of the crystalline axes. By experimental studies and simulation, we show that the angular dependence of the vortex annihilation field springs from the convolution of the crystalline and configurational anisotropies. In contrast, the remanence and the nucleation field present a much simpler behavior controlled by the existence of a single symmetry axis when shape and crystalline orientation are taken into account. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.