Modelling the evolution of domains in nanoelements using finite elements

Investigation into the theoretical magnetic behaviour of permalloy is described. The material is discretised into a structure of nanoelements, so that we may employ micromagnetic simulations in order to investigate the material behaviour. In this paper we describe the formation and structure of domains in an array of interacting nanoelements with varying space between them. The simulations begin at saturation and end when the nanoelements are in a zero field equilibrium state. The time evolution of the system is described by the Landau-Lifschitz equation of motion and the field calculations are carried out by the use of a finite element spatial discretisation scheme.