Research

I study magnets. You should too.
Although humankind has known about magnets for millennia, when they are shrunk down to atomic scales, they behave in new and unexpected ways.

Complete list of publications on Google Scholar.

Research Topics

Skyrmions and DMI

Skyrmions are tiny swirls in the local magnetization direction. They can form due to the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. I have developed analytic theories for skyrmions with Prof. Kristen Buchanan (CSU) and written a review article on DMI with Prof. Bob Camley (UCCS).

“Consequences of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction,” R. E. Camley and K. L. Livesey, Surf. Sci. Rep. 78, 100605 (2023).

Magnetic nanoparticles

Magnetic nanoparticles are used in medical diagnoses and treatments, plus in industrial applications. I develop better and simple-to-use theories to characterize magnetic nanoparticles. Experiments measure the net properties of many thousands of particles... Can we infer their nanoscale properties from those bulk measurements?

Spin Waves

Magnets have high frequency dynamics in the gigahertz (microwave) frequency range. I have studied spin waves in a variety of magnetic thin films, including their nonlinear interactions. Magnets can be used for microwave signal processing devices like filters.

Selected publications

Skyrmions and DMI

“Consequences of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction,” R. E. Camley and K. L. Livesey, Surf. Sci. Rep. 78, 100605 (2023).

“Analytic theory for Neel skyrmion size, accounting for finite film thickness,” E. Lu, A. R. Stuart, A. R. Chalifour, J. C. Davidson, P. S. Keatley, K. S. Keatley and K. L. Livesey, J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 584, 171044 (2023).

Domain walls

“Stability considerations and dynamic effects in twisted magnetic structures,” B. McGrath, K. L. Livesey and R. E. Camley, Phys. Rev. B, 111, 094422 (2025).

“Domain walls in finite-width nanowires with interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction,” M. D. DeJong and K. L. Livesey, Phys. Rev. B 95, 054424 (2017).

“Analytic theory for the switch from Bloch to Neel domain wall in nanowires with perpendicular anisotropy,” M. D. DeJong and K. L. Livesey, Phys. Rev. B, 92, 202508 (2015).

Magnetic nanoparticle simulations

“Field-dependent magnetic relaxation times of magnetic nanoparticle systems: analytic approximations sup- ported by numerical simulations,” J. C. Davidson, N. R. Anderson, and K. L. Livesey, Phys. Rev. B 110, 144447 (2024).

“Curie-Weiss behavior and the interaction temperature of magnetic nanoparticle ensembles: Local structure strongly affects the magnetic behavior,” R. E. Camley, R. Macˆedo and K. L. Livesey, Phys. Rev. B 110, 144440 (2024).

“Tunability and ordering in 2D arrays of magnetic nanoparticles assembled via extreme field gradients,”
A. R. Mohtasebzadeh, J. C. Davidson, K. L. Livesey, T. M. Crawford, Adv. Mater. Interfaces 2201056 (2022).

“Simulating the self-assembly and hysteresis loops of ferromagnetic nanoparticles with sticking of ligands,” N. R. Anderson, J. Davidson, D. R. Louie, D. Serantes and K. L. Livesey, Nanomat. 11, 2870 (2021).

“Magnetic relaxation time for an ensemble of nanoparticles with randomly aligned easy axes: A simple expression,” A. R. Chalifour, J. C. Davidson, N. R. Anderson, T. M. Crawford and K. L. Livesey, Phys. Rev. B 104, 094433 (2021).

Magnetic nanoparticle analytic theories

“Exploiting unique alignment of cobalt ferrite nanoparticles, mild hyperthermia, and controlled intrinsic cobalt toxicity for cancer therapy,” P. B. Balakrishnan, N. Silvestri, T. Fernandez-Cabada, F. Marinaro, S. Fernandes, S. Fiorito, M. Miscuglio, D. Serantes, S. Ruta, K. Livesey, O. Hovorka, R. Chantrell and T. Pellegrino, Adv. Materials 2003712 (2020).

“Beyond the blocking model to fit nanoparticle ZFC/FC magnetisation curves,” K. L. Livesey, S. Ruta, N. R. Anderson, D. Baldomir, R. W. Chantrell and D. Serantes, Sci. Reports 8, 11166 (2018).

Spin waves and microwave applications

“Perpendicular standing spin waves in films with interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction,” E. Lu, K. S. Buchanan, and K. L. Livesey, Phys. Rev. B, 111, 064432 (2025).

“Breaking Space Inversion-Symmetry to Obtain Asymmetric Spin-Wave Excitation in Systems with Nonuni- form Magnetic Exchange,” R. Macˆedo, A. S. Kudinoor, K. L. Livesey and R. E. Camley, Adv. Electron. Mat. 2100435 (2021).

“Electromagnetic approach to cavity spintronics,” R. Macˆedo, R. C. Holland, P. G. Baity, L. J. McLellan, K. L. Livesey, R. L. Stamps, M. P. Weides and D. A. Bozhko, Phys. Rev. Appl. 15, 024065 (2021).

“Semianalytic approach to calculating the dynamic modes of magnetic vortices with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions,” C. Q. Flores, C. Chalifour, J. Davidson, K. L. Livesey and K. S. Buchanan, Phys. Rev. B 102, 024439 (2020).

“Using magnetic hyperbolic metamaterials as high-frequency tunable filters,” R. Macˆedo, K. L. Livesey and R. E. Camley, Appl. Phys. Lett. 113, 121104 (2018).

Effective medium methods

“Finding the effective magnetic permeability tensor of composite materials: beyond the small filling fraction limit,” R. E. Camley, A. L. Carpenter and K. L. Livesey, Phys. Rev. Appl. 20, 044029 (2023).

“Probing materials with electromagnetic waves: from bulk materials to microstructures,”
N. R. Anderson, R. E. Camley and K. L. Livesey , Chapter in Electrostatic and Magnetic Phenomena: Particles, Macromolecules, Nanomagnetics, Ed. Igor Tsukerman (2020).

“Computing the effective permittivity of composite materials using a finite difference method,” G. Godec and K. L. Livesey, Am. J. Phys. 87, 465 (2019).

Funding

Grants from national funding agencies:

Catalyst Seeding grant, New Zealand Royal Society (2025-26)
With Simon Granville, Jenny Malmstrom and Alexander Dmitriev
Division of Materials Research grant, National Science Foundation Award (2018-22)
Sole chief investigator.
Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering beamtime awards (2021, 2023, 2024)
International Exchanges award IES\R1\180135, UK Royal Society (2018-19)
With Paul Keatley

Other funding sources, including student support:

Summer scholarships, Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (2021, 2022, 2024)
Vacation scholarships, College of Engineering, Science and Environment, University of Newcastle (2021, 2022)
Research seed grant, University of Newcastle (2021)
Research seed grants, University of Colorado - Colorado Springs (2012, 2015, 2018)
Undergraduate research academy awards, University of Colorado - Colorado Springs (2014, 2016, 2018)
Student-faculty research awards, College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Colorado - Colorado Springs (2013, 2014, 2017 x2, 2019)
Mentored doctoral fellowship, University of Colorado - Colorado Springs (2022)
Industrial contract, YTC America (2016)
With Robert Camley and Zbigniew Celinski