Atomic spin structure of antiferromagnetic domain walls

The search for uncompensated magnetic moments on antiferromagnetic surfaces is of great technological importance as they are responsible for the exchange-bias effect that is widely used in state-of-the-art magnetic storage devices. We have studied the atomic spin structure of phase domain walls in the antiferromagnetic Fe monolayer on W(001) bymeans of spin-polarized scanning tunnelling microscopy and Monte Carlo simulations. The domain wall width only amounts to 6 - 8 atomic rows. Although walls oriented along < 100 > directions are found to be fully compensated, detailed analysis of < 110 >-oriented walls reveals an uncompensated perpendicular magnetic moment. Our result represents a major advance in the field of antiferromagnetism, and may lead to a better understanding of the magnetic interaction between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic materials.