Metastable behavior of the spin-s Ising and Blume-Capel ferromagnets: A Monte Carlo study

We present an extensive Monte Carlo investigation of the metastable lifetime through the reversal of the magnetization of spin-$s$ Ising and Blume-Capel models, where $s=\{1\mathrm{/}2,1,3\mathrm{/}2,2,5\mathrm{/}2,3,7\mathrm{/}2\}$. The mean metastable lifetime (or reversal time) is studied as a function of the applied magnetic field and for both models is found to obey the Becker-Doring theory, as was initially developed for the case of $s=1\mathrm{/}2$ Ising ferromagnet within the classical nucleation theory. Moreover, the decay of metastable volume fraction nicely follows the Avrami’s law for all values of $s$ and for both models considered.