A material view on extrinsic magnetic domain wall pinning in cylindrical CoNi nanowires

TL;DR

This study investigates the origins of extrinsic magnetic domain wall pinning in cylindrical CoNi nanowires, revealing grain boundaries as the primary factor influencing pinning strength and providing insights for improving magnetic device reliability.

Contribution

It experimentally identifies grain boundaries as the main source of domain wall pinning in CoNi nanowires and explores how microstructure modifications affect pinning behavior.

Findings

Pinning decreases with increasing grain size and magnetization.

Grain boundaries are the dominant pinning mechanism.

Surface roughness and dislocations are less significant.

Abstract

Speed and reliability of magnetic domain wall (DW) motion are key parameters that must be controlled to realize the full potential of DW-based magnetic devices for logic and memory applications. A major hindrance to this is extrinsic DW pinning at specific sites related to shape and material defects, which may be present even if the sample synthesis is well controlled. Understanding the origin of DW pinning and reducing it is especially desirable in electrochemically-deposited cylindrical magnetic nanowires (NWs), for which measurements of the fascinating physics predicted by theoretical computation have been inhibited by significant pinning. We experimentally investigate DW pinning in Co$_x$Ni$_{100-x}$ NWs, by applying quasistatic magnetic fields. Wire compositions were varied with $x=20,30,40$, while the microstructure was changed by annealing or varying the pH of the electrolyte for deposition. We conclude that pinning due to grain boundaries is the dominant mechanism, decreasing inversely with both the spontaneous magnetization and grain size. Second-order effects include inhomogeneities in lattice strain and the residual magnetocrystalline anisotropy. Surface roughness, dislocations and impurities are not expected to play a significant role in DW pinning in these wire samples.