Giant domain walls in a ferromagnet

Giant domain walls with a width of similar to 7 mu m are observed on the su rface of a ferromagnet - an amorphous magnetically soft alloy. A magnetoopt ic investigation shows that the walls have a Neel structure in the subsurfa ce region. The subsurface structure of these walls differs substantially fr om that of the narrower walls previously observed in iron, Permalloy, and a morphous materials. According to the theoretical model of Scheinfein and co -workers, which relates the width of an asymmetric Bloch wall in the bulk w ith the width at the surface, the width of the wall in the bulk is estimate d to be 3-4 mu m. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-3640(99)00 920-2].