The effects of wall stiffness on reproducibility of thermo-magnetically written domains*

The reproducibility of thermomagnetically written domains has been studied as a function of writing parameters and intrinsic magnetic parameters of magneto-optic films. Films with higher anisotropy constant, smaller aspect ratio, higher coercivity, and compensation temperature near or above room temperature result in a higher degree of domain reproducibility. It is shown that a wall stiffness model is consistent with the experimental results. Larger wall stiffness makes the domains less deformable from an equilibrium value and consequently results in domains which are more regular in size and shape.