Abstract
We investigate analytically and numerically the ground and metastable states for easy-plane Heisenberg magnets with single-ion surface anisotropy and disk geometry. The configurations with two half vortices at the opposite points of the border are shown to be preferable for strong anisotropy. We propose a simple analytical description of the spin configurations for all values of surface anisotropy. The effects of lattice pinning lead to appearance of a set of metastable configurations.
- Received 13 November 2002
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.68.104428
©2003 American Physical Society