DOMAIN-STRUCTURE AND THE APPROACH TO SATURATION IN [111] ORIENTED IRON WHISKERS

The approach to saturation in the [111] direction for an iron whisker with its long axis in that direction is studied by ac susceptibility measurements. The data is analyzed to give the magnetization, intrinsic susceptibility, and demagnetizing field at each of 15 cross sections along the length for applied fields from 10 to ∼1000 Oe. The results are interpreted using postulated domain structures for hexagonal prism whiskers. It is concluded that mean field anisotropy theory does not account for the results. The approach to saturation in the [111] direction may represent the behavior of the 3-component 3-dimensional Potts model.