Magnetostatic interaction in nanowires

Abstract

Nonvolatile memory and logic devices rely on the manipulation of domain walls in magnetic nanowires, and scaling of these devices requires an understanding of domain wall behavior as a function of the wire width. Due to the increased importance of edge roughness and microstructure in narrow lines, domain wall pinning increases dramatically as the wire dimensions decrease and stochastic behavior is expected depending on the distribution of pinning sites. This work reports on the field driven domain wall statistics in sub-100 nm wide nanowires made from Co films of 8 nm thickness made by an electron beam lithography and etching process that minimizes edge roughness.