Investigation of slanted and V-shaped domain walls in MnAs films

The magnetic domain structure of MnAs stripes exhibits a number of domain transitions that are inclined with respect to the system's easy axis. Among them are laterally confined slanted and V-shaped domain walls, as well as extended zigzag shaped transitions that are running along the stripe axis. The nature of these unusual domain transitions was investigated with the help of micromagnetic simulations and compared with experimental magnetic force microscopy (MFM) images. All types of inclined walls result from the underlying three-dimensional domain structure of the wires. In the domain transition region, the underlying flux closure pattern gets asymmetrically distorted in the cross-sectional wire plane as the system changes its domain types. The results of the simulations are in excellent qualitative agreement with the stray field patterns observed with MFM. © 2009 American Institute of Physics