Selection and Control of Individual Domain Walls in Nanowire Arrays via Asymmetric Depinning Fields

Artificially inscribed notches are often used to pin domain walls (DWs) in ferromagnetic nanowires. The process of selecting and moving the trapped DW in nanowire arrays is an important step for potential applications. The chirality of a DW leads to a pair of pinning positions at the inscribed notches, which can be modeled by a symmetric double well. The depinning field depends on the side of the well, the DW is trapped with respect to the applied field direction, and the DWs can also be transitioned between the two wells without depinning. We demonstrate how manipulating the double well improves the DW selectivity and control in wire arrays containing multiple DWs