Large vortex state in ferromagnetic disks

Magnetic vortices in soft ferromagnetic nano-disks have been extensively studied for at least several decades both for their fundamental (as a "live" macroscopic realization of a field theory model of an elementary particle) as well as applied value for high-speed high-density power-independent information storage. Here it is shown that there is another vortex state in nano-scale ferromagnetic disks of several exchange lengths in size. The energy of this large vortex state is computed numerically (within the framework of Magnetism@home distributed computing project) and its stability is studied analytically, which allows to plot it on magnetic phase diagram. It is the ground state of cylinders of certain sizes and is metastable in a wider set of geometries. Large vortices exist on par with classical ones, while being separated by an energy barrier, controllable by tuning the geometry and material of ferromagnetic disk. This state can be an excellent candidate for magnetic information storage not only because the resulting disk sizes are among the smallest, able to support magnetic vortices, but also because it is the closest to the classical vortex state of all other known metastable states of magnetic nano-cylinder, which implies, that the memory, based on switching between these two different types of magnetic vortices, may, potentially, achieve the highest possible rate of switching.