Theoretical Determination of Domain Width of Simple-Honeycomb Domain Structures

Abstract

The simple-honeycomb remanent structure that can be produced under specific conditions in uniaxial ferromagnetic monocrystals is theoretically investigated by means of the phenomenological formalism. Particular attention is paid to the simplifying assumption made by some authors while calculating this structure, namely, the ratio of the diameter of those hexagonal rodlike domains to their mutual distance is said to be constant and, thus, independent of the crystal thickness in the magnetically favored direction. It is shown that this assumption is justified for rather large thicknesses, the lower limit being about 1 μm. Furthermore, the dependence of the domain width on the thickness of the crystal is theoretically studied and, since for large thicknesses the calculated widths are still smaller than the measured ones, the conclusion is drawn that it is the neglect of the cuneiform closure domains in the model which is substantially responsible for this discrepancy between theoretical and experimental results, rather than the assumption just discussed. Finally, the stability of the simple-honeycomb domain structure is examined, this being found to be stable for arbitrary thickness of the crystal.