Size Dependence of Domain Pattern Transfer in Multiferroic Heterostructures

Influence of elastically pinned magnetic domain walls on magnetization reversal in multiferroic heterostructures

“…In particular, a 1 and a 2 domains switch simultaneously when the magnetic field is applied perpendicularly to the walls, while they switch at distinct fields when the magnetic field is applied parallel to the walls. This unusual switching behavior is caused by strong magnetic domain wall pinning and the substantial energy difference between charged and uncharged walls [23,25], as discussed below.…”

“…The profile of charged magnetic domain walls is mostly determined by the competition between magnetostatic energy and magnetic anisotropy energy, while exchange energy and magnetic anisotropy energy mainly define the structure of uncharged magnetic domain walls [23]. As magnetostatic coupling between spins extends over a longer distance than exchange interactions, the width and energy of charged walls are considerably larger than that of uncharged walls.…”

“…As magnetostatic coupling between spins extends over a longer distance than exchange interactions, the width and energy of charged walls are considerably larger than that of uncharged walls. Moreover, since the magnetostatic energy increases with ferromagnetic film thickness, the difference between the width and energy of charged and uncharged domain walls becomes more pronounced for thick films [23]. 20 nm CoFeB film that was grown on BaTiO 3 under the same conditions as the wedge film.…”

“…The strong pinning effect can be utilized to form two types of magnetic domain walls with different energy and width by rotation of the magnetic field direction in the film plane [19]. While the influence of pinned domain walls on the scaling of domain pattern transfer in strain-coupled heterostructures has been analyzed [23], their effect on the magnetic switching process has not yet been addressed.…”

“…Other promising strategies to locally tailor the magnetic properties of a continuous magnetic medium exploit either exchange coupling with a multiferroic BiFeO 3 layer [13][14][15][16] or strain coupling to the ferroelastic domains of a ferroelectric BaTiO 3 substrate * sebastiaan.van.dijken@aalto.fi [17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. Although stemming from different mechanisms, both latter approaches result in one-to-one correlations between the domains in BiFeO 3 or BaTiO 3 and the domains of an adjacent ferromagnetic film.…”