The shape anisotropy of a magnetic thin film competes with the easy-axis anisotropy, which gives rise to different domain structures compared to the bulk magnetic materials. Recent Lorentz microscope and electron holography and differential-phase-contrast experiments show complex domain structures with features not found in bulk materials seen by magneto-optic method.

In this report we use micromagnetic simulation techniques to study the effect of thickness on the domain structure of magnetic thin films with various orientations relative to the easy axis and compare with those in the bulk materials. The results of the simulations can be used to compare with the data obtained using electron holography experiments to give us quantitative understanding of the domain structure in hard magnetic materials.

We model the magnetic films with an array of dipoles of size 16×l6×Lz, where Lz the thickness of the sample.