Studying frustration effects in magnetic molecules with classical spin dynamics methods
Date/Time: | Friday, 03 Sep 2010 from 4:10 pm to 5:00 pm |
---|---|
Location: | Room 18 Physics |
Phone: | 515-294-5630 |
Channel: | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences |
Actions: | Download iCal/vCal | Email Reminder |
Classical spin dynamics methods have been used for several decades now and their value for the prediction of physical properties of (infinite) bulk magnetic systems is established. However, when it comes to magnetic molecules it seems to be questionable to what extent a classical approach, usually exploiting the Heisenberg model, would be accurate enough to describe these "zero-dimensional" systems or whether one oversimplifies the problem by totally ignoring quantum effects. In this talk I will show that numerical simulations based on classical spin dynamics serve as an excellent tool to supplement exact and approximate quantum methods. Moreover, classical numerical simulations allow us to explore magnetic molecules very efficiently which has led to the discovery of a variety of new and surprising physical phenomena.