A novel analytical model for hysteresis loops of exchange-coupled hard-soft magnets

Hard/soft permanent magnets have attracted a lot of attention because of their rich magnetic properties and their potential for realizing giant energy products. However, energy products obtained by scientists in experiments are much smaller than the theoretical values, which has been studied by various analytical and numerical methods. The famous Stoner-Wohlfarth model (S-W model) is too simple to give the hysteresis loops whereas the intensively used variational method is too complicated to reveal the underlying mechanism in a simple form. The analytical model proposed in this paper maintains a balance between simplicity and precision, where the spins in the soft layer rotate fast and coherently with the applied field while those in the hard layer response to the applied field much slower but also coherent. An exchange coupling is provided to maintain the exchange spring which drags the spins in the hard layer to follow those in the soft layer. Similar to the more sophisticated model, the calculated hysteresis loops display three typical magnetic phases, i.e., the rigid composite magnet, the exchange spring and decoupled magnet, whereas the simple SW model can only give one single phase, i.e., the rigid composite one. In addition to the hysteresis loop, the energy product and the nucleation fields have been calculated and compared with those calculated by other methods, which justifies our model. Careful comparisons show that our calculations are in good agreement with the experimental results and other theoretical results, especially for the important coercivity value and the related mechanism.