MAGNETIC DOMAIN WALLS AND DOMAINS

Why a piece of Fe does not always show N-S poles?

A ferromagnetic material tends to break in “domains” to minimize the total energy

This configuration shows N-S poles but “pays” large

magnetostatic energy

This configuration is free of magnetostatic energy but quite likely

“pays” anisotropy energy and some exchange energy and
perhaps even some magnetoelastic energy

Exchange Energy: Between two spins: 2

2
Energy per unit of volume:

A is the Exchange Stiffness Constant: 1

Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Materials
 MAGNETIC DOMAIN WALLS AND DOMAINS
Why a piece of Fe does not always show N-S poles?

Minimization with cubic anisotropy Minimization with uniaxial anisotropy

Anisotropy Energy: Uniaxial

If a magnetic field is applied, we will have to take the Zeeman energy into account:

What is the energy stored in the magnetic domain walls (DW)?

2
What is the DW internal structure?

Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Materials

 MAGNETIC DOMAIN WALLS AND DOMAINS
180 º Magnetic Domain Wall

In a Bloch wall the

neighboring spin magnetic
moments rotate gradually
and it takes several
hundred atomic spacings to
rotate the magnetic
moment by 180.

The width of a 180º DW results from the

compromise of the anisotropy energy and
the exchange energy.

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Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Materials
 MAGNETIC DOMAIN WALLS AND DOMAINS
Rough calculation of the 180 º DW energy
Angle between adjacent atoms: π/N

On a simple cubic lattice with lattice constant a, there is 1/a2 atoms per
unit of area in each layer and N/a2 atoms in the wall, per unit of area

The exchange energy in the wall is therefore:

where 2 the exchange between two atoms

Therefore 2 cos

On the other hand, the Anisotropy energy of a 180º DW is proportional to its width:

Energy ‘paid’ to be misaligned with the easy axis (per unit of volume)

The total energy of the DW per unit of area is then:

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Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Materials
 MAGNETIC DOMAIN WALLS AND DOMAINS
Rough calculation of the 180 º DW energy
There is an optimum number of atoms N, that minimizes this DW energy:

Therefore, the thickness of the DW is given by:

For Fe for instance: J=2,16·10-21 J, S=1/2, K=4,2·104 J/m3 δ= 42 nm (150 atoms)

The energy of the DW can be obtained by substituting N in the energy formula:

2 2

Can we calculate the structure of the DW if we do NOT assume constant rate of rotation in the spins?

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Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Materials
 MAGNETIC DOMAIN WALLS AND DOMAINS
Domain Wall Structure
-DW is the boundary between
two fully magnetized domains

-Its width and structure is a

balance of energy contributions

-Ku decrease width, A increase width

2 For a pair of atoms

2 Continuous form

with / ) Exchange constant [J/m]

1 ⋯
2 24
constant

2 6
Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Materials
 MAGNETIC DOMAIN WALLS AND DOMAINS
Domain Wall Structure
Uniaxial
Anisotropy energy is
Cubic in {100} plane
The total DW energy (surface energy) is:

The shape of the DW is given by the minimization of the energy.

Guide to minimize the expression: Either you use calculus of variations or think in terms of the
torque acting on the local magnetization.

Torque resulting from the exchange energy

Torque resulting from the anisotropy energy

At equilibrium, these torques must be equal and opposite: 7

Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Materials
 MAGNETIC DOMAIN WALLS AND DOMAINS
Domain Wall Structure
Multiplying this equation by / and integrating over x:

1
and 2 2
2
Therefore:

From this equation we can get the shape of the DW:

The simplest case is a 180º domain wall in a material with uniaxial anisotropy, where g(ϕ)=Ku sin2 ϕ,
and the local magnetization rotates through 180º, from 0 to π. Therefore

The thickness of the DW is formally infinite. One way to define it is assuming a constant value of the
slope dϕ/dx at the center of the wall:
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Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Materials
 MAGNETIC DOMAIN WALLS AND DOMAINS
Domain Wall Structure

If (dϕ/dx)max at the center of the wall (ϕ=/2), is

So the effective wall thickness is:

In order to calculate the energy accumulated
in the DW, we go back to:

As anisotropy and exchange energy are the

same at every point of the DW:

and with

For uniaxial anisotropy:

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Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Materials
 MAGNETIC DOMAIN WALLS AND DOMAINS
Domain Wall Structure

For a 90º DW, the energy would be roughly half: 2

The width of a 90º DW, in a cubic material is: (Only changes the value of K)

Note that the energy of any DW is going to be proportional to and its width to

Example: Calculate the energy and width of a 180º DW in Iron, knowing that A=(nJS2 )/a, and J~0,3kTc
=4·10-14 erg

Solution:

Which is about 150 atoms, so each spin rotates on average 0.6º with adjacent spins

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Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Materials
 MAGNETIC DOMAIN WALLS AND DOMAINS
Domain Wall Structure

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Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Materials
 MAGNETIC DOMAIN WALLS AND DOMAINS
Other types of Magnetic Domain Walls

Néel DW: If thickness of the film comparable to thickness of the DW, then magnetostatic energy
makes a difference

Thickness < 50-60 nm

The energy on a Néel DW is approximately:

2
é
2

In the limit of t<< :

A=10-11 J/m, BS=1T and K=100 J/m3

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Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Materials
 MAGNETIC DOMAIN WALLS AND DOMAINS
Other types of Magnetic Domain Walls
We can minimize the expression of the energy to obtain the width of the DW. The equation
obtained can be easily solved in the limit t<< :
/
2
é

A=10-11 J/m, BS=1T and K=100 J/m3

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Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Materials
 MAGNETIC DOMAIN WALLS AND DOMAINS
Other types of Magnetic Domain Walls
Cross-Tie DW: Minimizing the magnetostatic energy from charged DW

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Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Materials
 MAGNETIC DOMAIN WALLS AND DOMAINS
Domain Walls near interfaces: The Exchange Length

Stripe domains: In films with perpendicular to plane anisotropy

When is not worth for the magnetization to rotate

near the surface?

When M is perpendicular to the surface:

/

1
2
When the rotation of M does not involve any
magnetostatic on the surface::
/
∥

A=10-11 J/m for all cases

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Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Materials
 MAGNETIC DOMAIN WALLS AND DOMAINS
Domain Walls near interfaces: The Exchange Length

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Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Materials
 MAGNETIC DOMAIN WALLS AND DOMAINS
Closure Domains
The energy per unit of volume change that
determines if closure domains will from is:

∆ 0,41 1.7

Energy spent on Magnetostatic

more DW length energy reduced

Anisotropy energy of
the closure domain

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MS =0,625T ,Udw=0,1 mJ/m2 , Ku d=1 mJ/m2 and t·d=10-14 m2

Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Materials

 MAGNETIC DOMAIN WALLS AND DOMAINS
Closure Domains

KERR of Permalloy

MFM of a
hard drive

BITTER of
Permalloy
SEM of Fe-Si3% 18
Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Materials
 PROBLEMS
1.- Calculate the magnetic pressure acting on the 180º domain wall, when an external magnetic field
H, parallel to the domain wall, is applied.

2.- The figure shows the magnetic configuration of a ferromagnetic material when H=0 (left). Upon
applying a H, the domain walls displace as shown on the figure of the right. For an anisotropy K
along the width w and an exchange stiffness A, calculate the value of “x” that minimizes the energy
for every H.

x
d
H
d

w
3.- The material SrRuO3, has a Curie Temperature of 150K, an anisotropy field of 10T, a saturation
magnetization of 0.2T, a lattice constant of 0.5 nm and S=1/2. Calculate the width of a 180º domain
wall in this material. Assume J ex≈0.5·kTc
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Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Materials
 PROBLEMS
4.- The exchange bias energy is given by the expression Jex=MS ·HE ·tFM . H
In the exchange biased structure of the figure, the thickness of the
ferromagnetic material is much smaller than the exchange length of this
∥
material (tFM << ). Calculate the angle that form MS with the original
direction of HE when an external field H is applied like in the figure.
HE
5.- An sphere of magnetic material may be in one of the two states
shown in the figure: (a) fully magnetized or (b) broken into two domains
with equal volume, separated by a 180º magnetic domain wall. Knowing
that configuration (b) has half the magnetostatic energy of configuration
(a), calculate the maximum radius R that allows configuration (a) for an
exchange stiffness A=3·10-11 J/m, a uniaxial anisotropy energy
Ku =5·105 J/m3 and a saturation magnetization µ0 MS =1.78 T.

6.-A piece of magnetic materials has dimensions L= π cm, w=1cm and

t=10 μm, uniaxial anisotropy along its width KU =4·105 J/m3 , exchange
stiffness A=9·10-12 J/m and saturation magnetization μ0 MS =1T. With a
magnetic field of H=500 A/m, the material develops two identical semi-
circular bubble domains that grow unimpeded until they come to a final
maximum size of R=R final . The demagnetizing energy per unit of
volume behaves like , where 10 1 . Find
R final for the given field H=500 A/m.
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Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Materials
 PROBLEMS

7.- A ferromagnetic plate (L=10cm) is broken into two domains

separated by a 180º magnetic domain wall as shown in the figure.
The material has the following values: exchange stiffness A=3·10-11
J/m, uniaxial anisotropy energy Ku =5·105 J/m3 along the width w,
and saturation magnetization µ0 MS =1.78 T. The magnetos-tatic
energy can be roughly expressed by
2
51 x 
E ms  5·10     0 M S ·Lwt
2

2 L
For H=35 A/m, calculate the resting position of the domain wall

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Thermal and Magnetic Properties of Materials