Micromagnetics of ferromagnetic equilateral triangular prisms

A systematic study of micromagnetic configurations in thin equilateral tria ngular prisms as a function of lateral size and thickness is reported. The resulting map of a micromagnetic ground state is presented in the form of a micromagnetic phase diagram with two regions corresponding to buckle and Y -state configurations. These configurations led to the formation of a confi gurational anisotropy field, an ab initio calculation of which is presented and the results are compared with experiment. The calculated six-fold symm etric anisotropy field agreed well with experiment but was found to depend on the applied field in phase and magnitude. The anisotropy field dependenc e on the triangular nanostructure edge roughness was also investigated and related to the stability of the micromagnetic phases. (C) 2000 American Ins titute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)04122-0].