Mechanical properties of macroscopic magnetocrystals

Abstract We studied experimentally and by numerical simulations the mechanical response of arrays of macroscopic magnetic spheres when an external stress is applied. First, the tensile strength of single chains and ribbons was analyzed. Then, simple cubic (cP), hexagonal (Hx) and hybrid (cP-Hx) structures, called here magnetocrystals , were assembled and subjected to tensile stress, bending stress and torsion until failure was reached. Atomistic crystalline structures are isotropic, but in the case of magnetocrystals, even when geometric isotropy is obeyed, dipolar magnetic interactions introduce a physical anisotropy which modifies, in a non-usual manner, the structures response to the kin…