Equilibrium and metastable nanoscale domains in ultrathin magnets

We describe equilibrium and nonequilibrium stripe domains in ultrathin magnetic films with uniaxial perpendicular anisotropy. The notion of the domain chemical potential is introduced to analyze metastable domains and their thermal and field evolution. For ultrathin cobalt films the domain period is calculated as a function of the coercivity field. We demonstrate that the period of metastable domains can significantly differ from the period of equilibrium domains. (© 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

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