Composite magnetic domain structure in epitaxial YIG films with moderate uniaxial anisotropy

Abstract

It is shown in this work that the observed stripe-like magnetic domain structure in epitaxial iron garnet films possessing small uniaxial magnetic anisotropy cannot be explained as equilibrium stripes divided by 180° domain walls and can be described by the composite domain structure of two-level organization, that consists of stripe-like micro-domains and larger macro-domains and has lower total energy than simple stripe domain structure.