2017/11/30 by Yu Zhang, Xueying Zhang, Nicolas Vernier +10
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Anisotropy #Domain wall (magnetism) #Laplace pressure #Magnetic Properties and Synthesis of Ferrites #Magnetic domain #Magnetic field #Magnetic force microscope #Magnetic properties of thin films #Metallic Glasses and Amorphous Alloys #Nanodot #Nucleation #Spintronics #cond-mat.mes-hall #physics.app-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevapplied.9.064027
published as Phys. Rev. Applied 9, 064027 (2018)
openalex created_date 2017/12/22 · arxiv created 2018/04/21 · openalex publication_date 2018/06/18 · arxiv updated 2018/06/27 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
As the march toward a spintronic future continues apace, the authors find that surface tension plays a critical role in the dynamics of curved magnetic domain walls (DWs). Direct observation with a Kerr microscope reveals that the switching-field distribution shifts to l\phantom\rule00exo\phantom\rule00exw\phantom\rule00exe\phantom\rule00exr values of magnetic field as the size of Co-Fe-B/MgO nanodots decreases---quite the opposite of previous results. In the framework of an elastic interface, this can be explained as Laplace pressure applied to DWs nucleated at the edges of the dots. These findings suggest a path toward scalable spintronic devices with lower switching energies, based on controlling the nucleation and pinning potential of DWs.