3-DIMENSIONAL SIMULATION OF THE DISTURBANCE OF MAGNETIC DOMAIN-WALLS BY MAGNETIC FORCE MICROSCOPE TIPS

The micromagnetics of the interaction of a strong 3D magnetic force mi croscope tip with a 180 degrees asymmetric Bloch domain wall. in an 80 nm {100} iron film has been simulated numerically using cubic element s on a 3D lattice. The distortion of the wall is found to be quite wel l localized on the scale of the tip dimensions, 60x60 nm(2). The force of attraction between tip and film and the changes in self-energy of the wall and in the energy of the tip-sample system have been calculat ed for various positions of the tip. The strong attraction between tip and sample is slightly reduced (similar to 5%) when the tip is direct ly over the central vortex in the wall. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.