Magnetic Domain Structures

Abstract

Ferromagnetic materials possess uniformly magnetized regions which exhibit a parallel orientation of all magnetic moments within this so-called magnetic domain on the one hand but on the other hand different directions of the magnetization in different domains. Thus, a demagnetized sample consists of domains each ferromagnetically ordered with a vanishing total magnetization. The boundary between neighbored domains are domain walls. In this chapter general considerations on the behavior ofmagnetic domains and domain walls are made for macroscopic systems exhibiting a lower length scale of the order of microns. Properties concerning magnetic domains of low- dimensional systems will be discussed in Chaps. 12–15.