CHARACTERIZATION OF MINOR LOOPS USING PREISACH-BASED MODELS

This paper gives a theoretical analysis of recently reported experimen tal hysteresis data by O'Grady and Greaves [J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 138, L233 (1994)] performed on a variety of thin film and particulate reco rding samples. Using recently developed hysteresis models, it is shown that the nonzero area of their measured minor loop is due to hysteron s in the media that switch to the up state in negative field. Using th e accommodation model, it is shown that, when cycling the applied fiel d, the computed magnetization drifts up or down and approaches a stabl e minor loop. The direction of the drift depends on the accommodating magnetizing process. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.