Dynamics of domain walls in ultrathin magnetic films

The domain walls in ultrathin ferromagnetic films with uniaxial magnetic anisotropy are investigated theoretically. It is shown that taking account of the magnetodipole and magnetoelastic interactions leads to the appearance of an effective anisotropy with respect to the direction of the normal to the plane of the wall. The existence of a new type of domain walls—“corner” walls, at which the magnetization vector is rotated in the plane making a certain angle, which depends on the film parameters, with the plane of the domain wall and the static and dynamic properties of these walls are investigated. The dependence of the limiting velocity of the domain walls on the film thickness is found. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 112, 1476–1489 (October 1997)     

Three-dimensional diagrams of the regions occupied by induced Anger states in a multidomain magnetic medium

The regions of existence of Anger states in an iron garnet film are plotted and investigated for the first time in a space of three controlling parameters: the frequency and amplitude of the alternating field and the magnitude of the static bias field. It is shown that the dynamic spiral domains differ significantly in their configuration and properties in different regions. A quantitative parameter involving the velocity of the domain walls and the “looseness” (sparseness) of the dynamic array of magnetic domains is introduce to characterize the favorability of conditions for the formation of spiral domains. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 40, 1865–1870 (October 1998)     

Current hysteresis collapse and the formation condition for electric-field domains in lightly doped superlattices

It is shown that under resonance tunneling conditions the energy structure of electric-field domains in doped superlattices is substantially different from a resonance structure. As the impurity concentration decreases, the domain walls become wider and the current hysteresis becomes narrower (collapses) as a result of the mismatch of the resonance levels in the region of a domain wall. A physical interpretation of the criterion for the existence of electric-field domains is given. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 64, No. 3, 146–151 (10 August 1996)     

Magnetic resonance of intrinsic defects in the spin-Peierls magnet CuGeO3

Magnetic resonance in pure single-crystal CuGeO₃ at frequencies 9–75 GHz in the temperature range 1.2–25 K is investigated. Splitting of the magnetic-resonance line into several spectral components is observed at temperatures below 5 K, where spin-Peierls dimerization suppresses the magnetic susceptibility and the ESR signal intensity. Analysis of the magnetic resonance spectra over a wide frequency range with different directions of the magnetic field at different temperatures makes it possible to identify among these components the ESR signals due to defects, having effective spin S=1/2 and spin S=1, in the spin-Peierls phase. The g factor corresponding to these ESR signals is the same and close to the value characteristic for the ion Cu²⁺. Another magnetic-resonance line is characterized by a strongly anisotropic g factor and an increase (at a threshold in the excitation power) in the susceptibility both at resonance and in the line wings. These signals are tentatively attributed to two possible types of planar defects arising on the walls of domains of the spin-Peierls state with different values of the dimerization phase. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 114, 1876–1896 (November 1998)     

Giant domain walls in a ferromagnet

Giant domain walls with a width of ∼7 μm are observed on the surface of a ferromagnet — an amorphous magnetically soft alloy. A magnetooptic investigation shows that the walls have a Néel structure in the subsurface region. The subsurface structure of these walls differs substantially from that of the narrower walls previously observed in iron, Permalloy, and amorphous materials. According to the theoretical model of Scheinfein and co-workers, which relates the width of an asymmetric Bloch wall in the bulk with the width at the surface, the width of the wall in the bulk is estimated to be 3–4 μm. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 70, No. 8, 528–530 (25 October 1999)     

Chaotic dynamics of interacting domain walls in uniaxial ferromagnetic films

The nonlinear dynamics of a periodic system of interacting domain walls in a thin ferromagnetic uniaxial film with transverse anisotropy is examined. The interaction between the domain walls takes place through the magnetostatic demagnifying fields of the domains. The equations of motion derived for such a system of walls are solved numerically by a 4–5th-order Runge-Kutta scheme, while the uniformity of the distributions of the phase trajectory, the form of the Poincaré cross section, and the spectral density of the vibrations serve as indicators of the type of oscillations. All the known types of oscillations are observed in a computer simulation of this nonlinear system: periodic, quasiperiodic, and chaotic. The computational results have a universal character for uniaxial, highly-anisotropic ferromagnetic films having a strip domain structure, since the results can be easily scaled for materials with different magnetic characteristics. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 2036–2039 (November 1997)     

Effect of the inner structure of domain walls on the stability of an isolated stripe domain in a pulsed field

This paper studies the effect of the inner structure of domain walls on the stability of an isolated stripe domain localized in a thin ferromagnetic film against a pulse of magnetic field applied perpendicularly to the film surface. It is found that the value of the critical amplitude of the pulsed signal strongly depends on the value of the magnetizing field in which the system was initially placed. It is also established that the difference on stability of domains with unipolar and bipolar walls in pulsed fields diminishes as the amplitude of the magnetizing field decreases. Finally, the dependence of the region of stability in a pulse field on the parameters of the system is determined for various domain types. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 116, 1694–1705 (November 1999)     

On a hydrodynamical description of the Dirac equation

A new form of the Dirac equation in curved spacetime (M, g) is given. It is based on the representation of a bispinor by means of an orthonormal vierbein e_α and a complex number ?. In the geometrical language the Dirac equation obtained this way is equivalent to the system of second order equations for the vierbein. The function ? is uniquely determined by the vierbein field.     

Microinhomogeneities in the distribution of oxygen concentration in ferrite-garnet films

Artificial microinhomogeneities were created in iron-garnet (TmBiCa)₃(FeGa)₅O_12−γ films with various degrees of oxygen nonstoichiometry, changes in the individual magnetic characteristics of these inhomogeneities were tracked during chemical oxidation and reduction, and the interactions of these inhomogeneities with planar domain walls and spiral domains were investigated. The resulting experimental data were interpreted by analyzing how the saturation magnetization, domain-wall surface-energy density, and uniaxial anisotropy constants depended on the concentrations of different-valency iron ions, cationic vacancies, and anionic vacancies. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 41, 2016–2019 (November 1999)     

Domain Patterns in the Microwave-Induced Zero-Resistance State

It has been proposed that the microwave-induced “zero-resistance” phenomenon, observed in a GaAs two-dimensional electron system at low temperatures in moderate magnetic fields, results from a state with multiple domains, in which a large local electric field E(r) is oriented in different directions. We explore here the questions of what may determine the domain arrangement in a given sample, what do the domains look like in representative cases, and what may be the consequences of domain-wall localization on the macroscopic dc conductance. We consider both effects of sample boundaries and effects of disorder, in a simple model, which has a constant Hall conductivity, and is characterized by a Lyapunov functional.     

Tunneling of magnetic domain walls in the quasirelativistic limit

An additional mechanism which increases the probability of tunneling of magnetic domain walls through defects of a crystal is discussed. In contrast to the thermally stimulated tunneling mechanisms described previously (c.f. Refs. 7 and 8), which arise when the wall acquires additional energy from the thermal system of the crystal, the latter mechanism is produced by the change in the structure of the walls themselves at high energies, which changes the character of their interaction with defects. The results of analytic and numerical analyses of this effect are reported. A discussion and an interpretation of existing experimental results. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 41, 1264–1266 (July 1999)     

Observation of diamagnetic domains in beryllium

We have observed diamagnetic domains (Condon domains) in a beryllium single crystal in magnetic fields H⩽3 T (H∥[0001]) at liquid-helium temperatures. The formation of the domain structure was determined according to magnetic-breakdown quantum oscillations of the resistance thermoelectric power as well as according to the splitting of the resonance peak of the free spin precession frequency of muons (μSR). The alternation of a uniform state (with one μSR peak) and a state with domain structure (with two peaks) is consistent as regards the periodicity with the de Haas-van Alphen effect, the period is ΔH≅78 Oe, and the range of existence of domains and the difference in their magnetizations are ΔB=4πΔM=B ₂−B ₁≅30 Oe. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 40, 524–526 (March 1998)     

Magnetoelectric response of the spin-Peierls compound CuGeO3

The effect of an electric field on the magnetic susceptibility in a pure CuGeO₃ single crystal at microwave frequencies is investigated. A quadratic effect of the electric field on the magnetic susceptibility, which increases with decreasing temperature, is observed in the spin-Peierls state at temperatures below 5 K. The observed effect is tentatively attributed to residual magnetism, due to distortions of the regular dimerized structure at domain walls with different values of the dimerization phase, and to the effect of the electric field on the interchain exchange interaction. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 64, No. 9, 646–651 (10 November 1996)     

Twin walls in anorthoclase are enriched in alkali and depleted in Ca and Al

Abstract

Composition profiles have been measured in transformation twin walls of the albite type in anorthoclase. Regions close to the walls between two twin domains are enriched in K and Na and depleted in Ca and Al. Microanalysis experiments show high mobility of alkali cations close to twin boundaries. Twin walls are generated via the displacive phase transition C2/m?C[lbar] in Al, Si disordered feldspar, and the chemical heterogeneity is a fingerprint for the subsequent diffusion of alkali and earth alkali ions during the cooling history of the sample.     

Propagation of nonequilibrium phonons in ferroelectric ceramics and single crystals

Phonon transport in ferroelectric ceramics and single crystals has been experimentally investigated. Our measurements indicate that, in the temperature range 1.7–3.8 K studied, the effective phonon diffusion coefficient behaves as D _eff∞T ⁻⁵ in ferroelectrics with a broadened phase transition. This experimental dependence is in accord with the presence of a plateau in the thermal conductivity of such materials. The scattering by domain walls in BaTiO₃ single crystals has been identified, and our results are in quantitative agreement with calculations. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 115, 624–631 (February 1999)     

Spectral dependence of the creation and erasure of electrical structure in ruby during nonlaser irradiation. Domain conductivity of ruby

The dependence of the rate of formation and erasure of photoinduced electrical domain structure in ruby on the spectral composition of nonlaser illumination is studied. Near-ultraviolet irradiation is found to cause rapid erasure of the domain structure. The photocurrent density and photoconductivity are determined as functions of the electric field strength of the domains during irradiation with different spectral compositions at 77 K and 300 K assuming a “capacitor” model for the domains. The dark conductivity of ruby is estimated. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 295–301 (February 1997)     

Expansion and relaxation of magnetic mirror domains in a Pt/Co/Pt/Co/Pt multilayer with antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling

We detail measurements of field-driven expansion and zero-field relaxation of magnetic mirror domains in antiferromagnetically coupled perpendicularly magnetized ultrathin Co layers. The zero-field stability of aligned ('mirror') domains in such systems results from non-homogeneous dipolar stray fields which exist in the vicinity of the domain walls. During field-driven domain expansion, we evidence a separation of the domain walls which form the mirror domain boundary. However, the walls realign, thereby reforming a mirror domain, if their final separation is below a critical distance at the end of the field pulse. This critical distance marks the point at which the effective net interaction between the walls changes from attractive to repulsive.     

“Switching” phase transition of the nanodomain state of the frustrated ferromagnet-antiferromagnet system

The phenomenon of switching of the domain walls generated by frustrations in a two-layer ferromagnet-antiferromagnet nanostructure has been studied theoretically taking into account the energy of the uniaxial anisotropy beyond the exchange approximation. This phenomenon manifests itself in the fact that, as the magnetic field increases, the ferromagnetic layer divided into nanodomains by domain walls perpendicular to the layer plane becomes single-domain, and the antiferromagnetic layer that is uniform in weak fields is divided into 180° domains by the domain walls perpendicular to the layer. The phase diagram of the two-layer nanostructure has been constructed in the variables “the magnetic field-the characteristic distance between atomic step edges at the interface between the layers.”     

Covariant canonical formalism for gravity

We continue the previous discussion (A. D'Adda, J. E. Nelson, and T. Regge, Ann. Phys. (N.Y.)165) of the covariant canonical formalism for the group manifold and relate it to the standard canonical vierbein formalism as pioneered by Dirac. The form bracket is related to the Poisson bracket of classical mechanics. We utilise systematically the calculus of differential forms and a compound notation which labels Poincaré multiplets. In this way we obtain a particularly clear and compact expression for the Hamiltonian and the constraints algebra of the vierbein formalism.