Evolution of ferromagnetic stripes in FePt films at low temperature

Abstract

Patterns of ferroic domains and domain walls are being intensively studied to implement new logic schemes. Any technological application of such objects depends on a detailed understanding of them. This study analyzes patterns of ferromagnetic stripes on equiatomic FePt thin films at low temperatures. Since FePt is known to develop a transition from in-plane homogeneous magnetization to stripes upon varying its thickness, multiple samples are studied to consider the critical value within the analyzed range. Stripes' width demonstrates the well-known Murayama's law while a non-trivial dependence on temperature is also reported. Moreover, the room-temperature uniform distribution of the pattern evolves into a distorted one upon temperature cycling. Finally, dissimilar striped patterns are obtained upon reducing and increasing temperature indicating the states are dependent on the history of applied stimuli rather than the parametric conditions.