Scaling behavior of the first arrival time of a random-walking magnetic domain

Phys Rev Lett. 2008 Apr 25;100(16):167204. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.167204. Epub 2008 Apr 23.

Abstract

We report a universal scaling behavior of the first arrival time of a traveling magnetic domain wall into a finite space-time observation window of a magneto-optical microscope enabling direct visualization of a Barkhausen avalanche in real time. The first arrival time of the traveling magnetic domain wall exhibits a nontrivial fluctuation and its statistical distribution is described by universal power-law scaling with scaling exponents of 1.34+/-0.07 for CoCr and CoCrPt films, despite their quite different domain evolution patterns. Numerical simulation of the first arrival time with an assumption that the magnetic domain wall traveled as a random walker well matches our experimentally observed scaling behavior, providing an experimental support for the random-walking model of traveling magnetic domain walls.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.