ESAIM: Control, Optimisation and Calculus of Variations

Research Article

3D-2D Asymptotic Analysis for Micromagnetic Thin Films

Alicandro, Robertoa1 and Leone, Chiaraa2

a1 SISSA, Via Beirut 4, 34013 Trieste, Italy; alicandr@sissa.it.

a2 Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Roma I, P.le A. Moro 2, 00185 Roma, Italy; leone@mat.uniroma1.it.

Abstract

Γ-convergence techniques and relaxation results of constrained energy functionals are used to identify the limiting energy as the thickness ε approaches zero of a ferromagnetic thin structure $\Omega_\varepsilon=\omega\times(-\varepsilon,\varepsilon)$ , $\omega\subset\mathbb R^2$ , whose energy is given by $$
{\cal E}_{\varepsilon}({\overline{m}})=\frac{1}{\varepsilon}
\int_{\Omega_{\varepsilon}}\left(W({\overline{m}},\nabla{\overline{m}}) 
+{\frac{1}{2}}\nabla {\overline{u}}\cdot {\overline{m}}\right)\,{\rm d}x
$$ subject to $$
\hbox{div}(-\nabla {\overline{u}}+{\overline{m}}\chi_{\Omega_\varepsilon})=0
\quad\hbox{ on }\mathbb R^3,
$$ and to the constraint $$
|\overline{m}|=1 \hbox{ on }\Omega_\varepsilon,
$$ where W is any continuous function satisfying p-growth assumptions with p> 1. Partial results are also obtained in the case p=1, under an additional assumption on W.

(Received September 25 2000)

(Received April 2001)

(Online publication August 15 2002)

Key Words:

  • Γ-limit;
  • thin films;
  • micromagnetics;
  • relaxation of constrained functionals.

Mathematics Subject Classification:

  • 35E99;
  • 35M10;
  • 49J45;
  • 74K35
  • [1] A. Braides and A. Defranceschi, Homogenization of Multiple Integrals. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1998). [Google Scholar]
  • [2] A. Braides and I. Fonseca, Brittle thin films, Preprint CNA-CMU. Pittsburgh (1999).
  • [3] A. Braides, I. Fonseca and G. Francfort, 3D-2D asymptotic analysis for inhomogeneous thin films, Preprint CNA-CMU. Pittsburgh (1999).
  • [4] W.F. Brown, Micromagnetics. John Wiley and Sons, New York (1963).
  • [5] C. Castaing and M. Valadier, Convex analysis and measurable multifunctions. Springer-Verlag, New York, Lecture Notes in Math. 580 (1977).
  • [6] B. Dacorogna, Direct methods in Calculus of Variations. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1989).
  • [7] B. Dacorogna , I. Fonseca , J. Maly and K. Trivisa , Manifold constrained variational problems. Calc. Var. 9 (1999) 185-206. [OpenURL Query Data]  [CrossRef]  [Google Scholar]
  • [8] G. Dal Maso, An Introduction to Γ-convergence. Birkhäuser, Boston (1993).
  • [9] I. Fonseca and G. Francfort , 3D-2D asymptotic analysis of an optimal design problem for thin films. J. Reine Angew. Math. 505 (1998) 173-202. [OpenURL Query Data]  [Google Scholar]
  • [10] I. Fonseca and G. Francfort, On the inadequacy of the scaling of linear elasticity for 3D-2D asymptotic in a nonlinear setting, Preprint CNA-CMU. Pittsburgh (1999).
  • [11] I. Fonseca and S. Müller , Quasi-convex integrands and lower semicontinuity in L 1. SIAM J. Math. Anal. 23 (1992) 1081-1098. [OpenURL Query Data]  [CrossRef]  [Google Scholar]
  • [12] G. Gioia and R.D. James , Micromagnetics of very thin films. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. Ser. A 453 (1997) 213-223. [OpenURL Query Data]  [CrossRef]  [Google Scholar]
  • [13] C.B. Morrey , Quasiconvexity and the semicontinuity of multiple integrals. Pacific J. Math. 2 (1952) 25-53. [OpenURL Query Data]  [Google Scholar]
  • [14] C.B. Morrey, Multiple integrals in the Calculus of Variations. Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1966).