Stochastic and complex depinning dynamics of magnetic domain walls

Joel Briones (1) , François Montaigne (1) , Michel Hehn (1) , Daniel Lacour (1) , Jeffrey R Childress (2) , Matthew J Carey (2)

1 IJL - Institut Jean Lamour
2 HGST San Jose Research Center

We study the thermally induced depinning process of a single magnetic domain wall (DW) under applied field when the DW is trapped by a notch made in a nanowire shaped from a spin-valve multilayer with in-plane magnetization. In such devices depinning is typically a stochastic process and the depinning field distribution exhibits complex features. By analyzing simultaneously depinning field distributions and relaxation data, we observe two distinct sources of "complexity" in DW depinning processes: multiplicity in the DW structure and fundamental complexity in the depinning process.

Domaines: Matière Condensée [cond-mat]

Joel Briones, François Montaigne, Michel Hehn, Daniel Lacour, Jeffrey R Childress, et al.. Stochastic and complex depinning dynamics of magnetic domain walls. Physical Review B, 2011, 83, pp.060401. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevB.83.060401⟩. ⟨hal-02949052⟩