Anomalous behavior of bending deformation induced by a magnetic field in a system of ferromagnetic stripes located on an elastomer

The effect of anomalous bending in a system of magnetically soft ferromagnetic stripes located on a highly elastic plate of elastomer has been studied both experimentally and theoretically. It was found that the magnetic-field dependences for the bending of plates with ferromagnetic stripes have a critical character with a reproduced hysteresis emerging in the repeated cycles of the magnetic field increasing and decreasing. It was found that the magnetically induced bending has a large magnitude, so that the magnetic moments of the stripes at the bending can be directed almost perpendicularly to the magnetic field. In a strong magnetic field, the effect of stripe orientation is observed, which occurs due to the orienting action of Zeeman interaction. It was shown that the hysteresis phenomenon observed at the bending of a plate with stripes is associated with a strong nonlinearity of magnetostatic interaction between the stripes at their magnetization. The hysteresis recurrence is caused by elastic forces arising at the elastomer bending and competing with magnetostatic dipole–dipole interactions between the stripes. The critical points of transitions between the 'discrete lattice' state of stripes and the state of laterally touching stripes were determined. A model of the phenomenon concerned was proposed which is in good agreement with experimental data. (paper)