Domain wall creep in magnetic thin films near the depinning transition

Domain wall creep near the depinning transition is investigated by using micromagnetic simulations of Pt/Co/Pt magnetic thin films with perpendicular anisotropy. Weak quenched disorder is considered which provides a depinning field lower than the Walker field thus allows access to the depinning transition below the Walker field. The simulated domain wall velocity is analyzed as a function of applied magnetic field in the creep, depinning, steady flow, and precessional flow regimes and compared with the experimental measurements. The energy barrier exponent and characteristic energy scale characterizing domain wall creep near the depinning transition are obtained by analyzing both the simulation and experimental data, and the results are examined against general theories of creep near the depinning threshold. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2016