Modulated systems in external fields: Conditions for the presence of reentrant phase diagrams

Abstract

We introduce a coarse-grained model capable of describing the phase behavior of two-dimensional ferromagnetic systems with competing exchange and dipolar interactions, as well as an external magnetic field. An improved expression for the mean-field entropic contribution allows us to compute the phase diagram in the whole temperature versus external field plane. We find that the topology of the phase diagram may be qualitatively different depending on the ratio between the strength of the competing interactions. In the regime relevant for ultrathin ferromagnetic films with perpendicular anisotropy we confirm the presence of inverse-symmetry breaking from a modulated phase to a homogeneous one as the temperature is lowered at constant magnetic field, as reported in experiments. For other values of the competing interactions we show that reentrance may be absent. Comparing thermodynamic quantities in both cases, as well as the evolution of magnetization profiles in the modulated phases, we conclude that the reentrant behavior is a consequence of the suppression of domain wall degrees of freedom at low temperatures at constant fields.