Stochastic switching in individual micrometre-sized Permalloy rings

The circulation of the low-field stable vortex states in a 5μm-diameter Permalloy ring, obtained by sweeping an applied field down from near-saturation, has been experimentally determined by focused magneto-optic Kerr effect magnetometry. The rings typically switch via the same circulation of the vortex state for both branches of the major hysteresis loop. Varying the applied field sinusoidally, the number of field cycles spent switching via one vortex state before changing to switch via the opposite vortex state is random. Micromagnetic simulations of the reversal in a 2μm-diameter Permalloy ring show that the history of the spin configuration plays a significant role in determining the vortex state circulation in these structures, and suggest that thermal fluctuations in a small region of edge spins are responsible for the stochastic switching observed over several applied field cycles.