ABSTRACT
Orientation dependence of the internal magnetic energy in
ferromagnetic
or
ferrimagnetic single crystals
. The
lattice direction
, along which the energy is the smallest, is called the
easy magnetization direction
. The angular dependence of the energy is described by a trigonometric series with coefficients known as constants of magnetic anisotropy. Magnetic materials with a low constant of magnetic anisotropy are soft magnetic, and those with a high constant are hard magnetic.
