Magnetic Tetrastability in a Spin Chain

Abstract

Bistability in magnetism has been extensively used, in particular to store information. Here we propose an alternative route by using tetrastable magnetic domains. Using numerical and analytical calculations we show that a spin chain with a canting angle of {\pi}/4 possesses four energy-equivalent states. We discuss the static properties of such chain such as the profile and the energy of the domain walls as they govern the relaxation of the magnetization. The realisation of such spin chain could enable the encoding of the information on four bits which is a potential alternative toward the increase of storage density.