Dislocation-induced magnetization reversal in a ferromagnetic film

¹ Department of Physics & Astronomy, Lehman College, The City University of New York 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West, Bronx, NY 10468, USA
² Department of Physics, Graduate Center, The City University of New York - 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA

Received: 18 November 2025
Accepted: 14 January 2026

Abstract

We demonstrate that moving edge dislocations can induce the reversal of magnetization in a ferromagnetic film due to the Barnett effect. The dynamics of magnetization is studied numerically within a discretized Landau-Lifshitz equation on a hexagonal lattice containing over 10⁵ sites. Local coordinate frames coupled to the crystallographic axes for each spin are used together with the laboratory coordinate frame. The parameters of a hexagonal close-packed cobalt lattice have been chosen for illustration. The magnetization reversal from a metastable initial state created by the external magnetic field occurs on a time scale of a few picoseconds. Our results imply that fast local elastic twists generated by moving dislocations serve as an important mechanism of magnetization dynamics in solids subjected to a mechanical stress.