MAGNETIC-BEHAVIOR AND RESISTIVITY OF THE DOMAIN-WALL JUNCTION GDFE(1000 ANGSTROM) TBFE GDFE(500 ANGSTROM)

A GdFe/TbFe/GdFe trilayer constitutes a magnetic nanostructure: the do main wall junction. With this device, we studied the propagation of 18 0 degrees domain walls from one GdFe layer to the other, through a sin gle planar defect (the thin TbFe layer) that acts as an artificial ene rgy barrier. Before crossing the energy barrier, by thermal activation , due to the applied magnetic field, the domain walls an compressed ag ainst the TbFe layer. Nucleation, compression, and propagation phenome na of 180 degrees domain walls an presented. The behavior of domain wa lls is followed from the electrical resistivity of the sample. A paral lel between the domain-wall decompression and the exchange biasing pro blem in ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic bilayers is proposed. [S0163-1 829(98)01629-4].