摘要
Buckling instability is proved to be the easiest nucleation mode for an elongated soft elliptical particle with a thickness of the order of the exchange length. The nucleation field saturates as a function of the particle length, and approaches that of a very long bar with a rectangular cross section. The bar nucleation field is estimated theoretically as a function of the bar width, thickness, and material parameters. A step like behavior of nucleation field is revealed by means of a numerical simulation for elliptical particles with a moderate aspect ratio. © 2002 The American Physical Society.