title: Thermally activated depinning of a narrow domain wall from a single defect.
abstract: We describe the field induced depinning process of a magnetic domain wall (DW) from a single bidimensional nanometric defect. The DW propagates in a wire lithographed on a film with strong perpendicular anisotropy. We observe a statistical distribution of the relaxation time consistent with a Néel-Brown picture of magnetization reversal. This indicates that the nanometric DW can be considered as an ideal monodomain particle switching over a single energy barrier. Such a stochastic character of DW depinning has to be taken into account for spintronic applications.
authors.affiliation: DRFMC/CEA Grenoble, 17 avenue des Martyrs, 38054 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Attané
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ravelosona
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marty
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Samson
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chappert