The complex transverse susceptibility

Previous attempts to explain the dependence of the transverse susceptibilit y (TS) on the DC field predict the occurence of a maximum at the particle a nisotropy field (H-K). We demonstrate that the TS is also very sensitive to the particle volume distribution, which strongly influences the magnitude of the TS peak and the corresponding value of the DC field. The DC field ha s the same effect on the TS as the temperature on the AC susceptibility, gi ving rise to a complex TS with invaluable applications for recording media, like the determination of the particle volume and anisotropy field distrib utions. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.