Thermal melting of magnetic stripe domains

W. Kuch, K. Fukumoto, J. Wang, F. Nolting, C. Quitmann, and T. Ramsvik

Phys. Rev. B 83, 172406 – Published 27 May 2011

Abstract

We present a microscopic investigation of the temperature dependence of stripe domains in perpendicularly magnetized Ni films on Cu(001) using photoelectron emission microscopy in combination with x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) in the resonant absorption of soft x rays. When the temperature approaches the Curie temperature of the system, the average width of the observed stripe domains is reduced along with the XMCD contrast. In addition, the domains become mobile. A quantitative analysis of the temperature-dependent motion of the domains yields an exponential behavior of the domain mobility with temperature, pointing toward thermally activated processes.

Received 13 October 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.83.172406

Authors & Affiliations

W. Kuch^* and K. Fukumoto^†

Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Experimentalphysik, Arnimallee 14, 14195 Berlin, Germany

J. Wang^‡

Max-Planck-Institut für Mikrostrukturphysik, Weinberg 2, 06120 Halle, Germany

F. Nolting, C. Quitmann, and T. Ramsvik^§

Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland

^*kuch@physik.fu-berlin.de; URL: http://www.physik.fu-berlin.de/∼ag-kuch
^†Present address: Tokyo Institute of Technology, Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
^‡Present address: State Key Laboratory for Magnetism, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100190, People’s Republic of China.
^§Present address: Tandbergs Patentkontor, Tordenskiolds gate 6B, 0160 Oslo, Norway.

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Vol. 83, Iss. 17 — 1 May 2011

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Physical Review B

covering condensed matter and materials physics