Static and dynamic depinning processes of a magnetic domain wall from a pinning potential

Abstract

We investigate experimentally pinning and depinning dynamics of a magnetic domain wall (DW) from a notch in a magnetic nanowire. When the domain wall is initially located at the notch, the domain wall depinning from the notch occurs at a well-defined threshold field. On the other hand, a completely different depinning dynamics is observed when an initially moving DW is pushed to pass through a notch. The depinning probability oscillates with increasing field, and the averaged depinning probability over the oscillation period decreases with increasing field in certain field ranges. These properties are attributed to the coupled dynamics of the DW propagation and the DW polarity reversal.