Slow magnetic relaxation in iron: a ferromagnetic liquid.

The remanent magnetization of single-crystal iron whiskers has been measured from 10(-5) to 10(4) seconds after the removal of an applied field. The observed response is accurately modeled by localized magnon relaxation on a Gaussian size distribution of dynamically correlated domains, virtually identical to the distribution of excitations in glass-forming liquids. When fields of less than 1 oersted are removed, some relaxation occurs before 10(-5) second has elapsed; but when larger fields are removed, essentially all of the response can be accounted for by magnon relaxation over the available time window. The model provides a physical picture for the mechanism and observed distribution of Landau-Lifshitz damping parameters.