We discuss the structure of the so-called vortex domain walls in soft magnetic nanoparticles. A wall of this kind is a composite object consisting of three elementary topological defects: two edge defects with winding numbers -1/2 and a vortex with a winding number +1 between them. We provide a qualitative model accounting for the energetics of such a domain wall.
We experimentally study the structure and dynamics of magnetic domains in synthetic antiferromagnets based on Co/Ru/Co films. Dramatic effects arise from the interaction among the topological defects comprising the dual domain walls in these structures. Under applied magnetic fields, the dual domain walls propagate following the dynamics of bi-meronic (bi-vortex/bi-antivortex) topological defects built in the walls. Application of an external field triggers a rich dynamical response: The propagation depends on mutual orientation and chirality of bi-vortices and bi-antivortices in the domain walls. For certain configurations, we observe sudden jumps of composite domain walls in increasing field, which are associated with the decay of composite skyrmions. These features allow for enhanced control of domain-wall motion in synthetic antiferromagnets with the potential of employing them as information carriers in future logic and storage devices.
The stochasticity of domain wall (DW) motion in magnetic nanowires has been probed by measuring slow fluctuations, or noise, in electrical resistance at small magnetic fields. By controlled injection of DWs into isolated cylindrical nanowires of nickel, we have been able to track the motion of the DWs between the electrical leads by discrete steps in the resistance. Closer inspection of the time-dependence of noise reveals a diffusive random walk of the DWs with an universal kinetic exponent. Our experiments outline a method with which electrical resistance is able to detect the kinetic state of the DWs inside the nanowires, which can be useful in DW-based memory designs.
We show that chiral symmetry breaking enables traveling domain wall solution for the conservative Landau-Lifshitz equation of a uniaxial ferromagnet with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. In contrast to related domain wall models including stray-field based anisotropy, traveling wave solutions are not found in closed form. For the construction we follow a topological approach and provide details of solutions by means of numerical calculations.
Recent experimental studies of magnetic domain expansion under easy-axis drive fields in materials with a perpendicular magnetic anisotropy have shown that the domain wall velocity is asymmetric as a function of an external in plane magnetic field. This is understood as a consequence of the inversion asymmetry of the system, yielding a finite chiral Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. Numerous attempts have been made to explain these observations using creep theory, but, in doing so, these have not included all contributions to the domain wall energy or have introduced additional free parameters. In this article we present a theory for creep motion of chiral domain walls in the creep regime that includes the most important contributions to the domain-wall energy and does not introduce new free parameters beyond the usual parameters that are included in the micromagnetic energy. Furthermore, we present experimental measurements of domain wall velocities as a function of in-plane field that are well decribed by our model, and from which material properties such as the strength of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and the demagnetization field are extracted.
We consider a domain wall in the mesoscopic quasi-one-dimensional sample (wire or stripe) of weakly anisotropic two-sublattice antiferromagnet, and estimate the probability of tunneling between two domain wall states with different chirality. Topological effects forbid tunneling for the systems with half-integer spin S of magnetic atoms which consist of odd number of chains N. External magnetic field yields an additional contribution to the Berry phase, resulting in the appearance of two different tunnel splittings in any experimental setup involving a mixture of odd and even N, and in oscillating field dependence of the tunneling rate with the period proportional to 1/N.