Magnetic properties of Ising thin films with cubic lattices

Abstract

We have used Monte Carlo simulations and mean-field analysis to observe the magnetic behavior of Ising thin films with cubic lattice structures as a function of temperature and thickness, especially in the critical region. Magnetization and magnetic susceptibility, including layer variation, are investigated. We find that the magnetic behavior changes from two-dimensional to three-dimensional character with increasing film thickness. Both the crossover of the critical temperature from a two-dimensional to a bulk value and the shift exponent are observed. Nevertheless, with support from a scaling function, the simulations show that the effective critical exponents for films with large enough layer extents only vary a little from their two-dimensional values. This, in particular, provides an indication of two-dimensional universality in the thin films.