multi-teraflops spin dynamics studies of the magnetic structure of femn/co interfaces
We have used the power of massively parallel computers to perform first principles spin dynamics (SD) simulations of the magnetic structure of Iron-Manganese/Cobalt (FeMn/Co) interfaces. These large scale quantum mechanical simulations, involving 2016-atom super-cell models, reveal details of the orientational configuration of the magnetic moments at the interface that are unobtainable by any other means. Exchange bias, which involves the use of an antiferromagnetic (AFM) layer such as FeMn to pin the orientation of the magnetic moment of a proximate ferromagnetic (FM) layer such as Co, is of fundamental importance in magnetic multilayer storage and read head devices. Here the equation of motion of first principles SD is used to perform relaxations of model magnetic structures to the true ground (equilibrium) state. Our code is intrinsically parallel and has achieved a maximum execution rate of 2.46 Teraflops on the IBM SP at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC).
parallel algorithms computation-intensive applications material science