Abstract
We investigate numerically the magnetization structures of the metastable states including quasiuniform state and various vortex states existing in an elliptical permalloy thin film. The typical energy curves as functions of the particle's size are obtained. It is found that the energy density of the quasiuniform state is smaller than the energy densities of these vortex states for small particles, but after a narrow transition range of size the energy density of the quasiuniform state becomes larger than the energy densities of these vortex states. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.