Abstract

During the last two decades, tremendous effort has been devoted to micron and submicron size magnetic elements, motivated both by fundamental scientific interest, such as novel magnetic states and switching processes [1–3], and by their potential for technological applications, such as magnetic random access memory (MRAM) [4,5] and magnetic sensors [6,7]. Characterizing the magnetic properties of nanostructures is a challenging task, as their shape significantly influences their physical response. Significant work has been invested in identifying geometries that offer the simplest, fastest, and the most reproducible switching mechanisms. Particular attention has been focused on magnetic structures with high-symmetry geometries, such as circular disks and squares, since spin configurations with high symmetry are expected for these elements, which, in turn, are believed to yield simple and reproducible memory states.