Normal modes of coupled vortex gyration in two spatially separated magnetic nanodisks

We found from analytical derivations and micromagnetic numerical simulations that there exist two distinct normal modes in apparently complex vortex gyrotropic motions in two dipolar-coupled magnetic nanodisks. The normal modes have characteristic higher and lower single angular eigenfrequencies with their own elliptical orbits elongated along the x (bonding axis) and y axes, respectively. The superposition of the two normal modes results in coupled vortex gyrations, which depend on the relative vortex-state configuration in a pair of dipolar-coupled disks. This normal-mode representation is a simple means of understanding the observed complex vortex gyrations in two or more dipolar-interacting disks of various vortex-state configurations. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3662923]