title: Tunable resistivity of individual magnetic domain walls.
abstract: Despite the relevance of current-induced magnetic domain wall (DW) motion for new spintronics applications, the exact details of the current-domain wall interaction are not yet understood. A property intimately related to this interaction is the intrinsic DW resistivity. Here, we investigate experimentally how the resistivity inside a DW depends on the wall width Δ, which is tuned using focused ion beam irradiation of Pt/Co/Pt strips. We observe the nucleation of individual DWs with Kerr microscopy, and measure resistance changes in real time. A 1/Δ(2) dependence of DW resistivity is found, compatible with Levy-Zhang theory. Also quantitative agreement with theory is found by taking full account of the current flowing through each individual layer inside the multilayer stack.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Physics, Center for NanoMaterials and COBRA Research Institute, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands. J.H.Franken@tue.nl
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Franken
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hoeijmakers
authors.forename: H J M
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Swagten
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Koopmans