Giant domain walls in a ferromagnet

Abstract

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.