Dynamics of one-dimensional domain walls interacting with disorder potential

Dynamics of 1D perpendicular-anisotropy domain walls in a few monolayer-thi n Co films is imaged by polar Kerr microscopy. When domain walls, driven by a square-pulsed magnetic fields, travel through a random disordered potent ial landscape, they display Gaussian-distributed roughness characteristic o f this landscape. Average velocity of the domain wall driven by a constant magnetic field strongly depends on a strain field which modifies (increases ) the elastic energy of the wall and reduces the wall velocity. (C) 2001 El sevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.