Plasticity-induced magnetization in amorphous magnetic solids

¹ Department of Physics, Emory University - Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
² Department of Chemical Physics, The Weizmann Institute of Science - Rehovot 76100, Israel

Received: 14 January 2014
Accepted: 3 February 2014

Abstract

Amorphous magnetic solids, like metallic glasses, exhibit a novel effect: the growth of magnetic order as a function of mechanical strain under athermal conditions in the presence of a magnetic field. The magnetic moment increases in steps whenever there is a plastic event. Thus, plasticity induces the magnetic ordering, acting as the effective noise driving the system towards equilibrium. We present results of atomistic simulations of this effect in a model of a magnetic amorphous solid subjected to pure shear and a magnetic field. To elucidate the dependence on external strain and magnetic field we offer a mean-field theory that provides an adequate qualitative understanding of the observed phenomenon.