Optical evidence of domain wall pinning in iron-garnet films by regular arrays of ferromagnetic particles

Abstract

Control over the magnetic domain structure of garnet films is an important task that is attractive for a wide range of applications. One of the possible approaches here is based on the introduction of additional structured magnetic coverages interacting with the garnet layer. In this study, we demonstrate that arrays of asymmetric ferromagnetic cobalt particles regularly arranged on the surface of Lu,Bi-substituted iron garnet film influence the orientation and width of the stripe domains, as stems from the optical microscopy, magneto-optical and diffraction studies. We also show that triangular-shaped Co particles induce the asymmetry of the magnetic field dependence on the magneto-optical Kerr effect of the composite structure. We assert that the key effect here is the interaction of the residual magnetic moments of Co particles with the surface closure domains.