Crossed-Ratchet Effects for Magnetic Domain Wall Motion

A. PÉREZ-JUNQUERA, V. I. MARCONI, A. B. KOLTON, L. M. ÁLVAREZ-PRADO, Y. SOUCHE, A. ALIJA, M. VÉLEZ, J. V. ANGUITA, J. M. ALAMEDA, J. I. MARTÍN, AND J. M. PARRONDO

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS

The American Physical Society

Lugar: USA; Año: 2008 vol. 100 p. 37203 - 37207

0031-9007

We study both experimentally and theoretically the driven motion of domain walls in extended amorphous magnetic films patterned with a periodic array of asymmetric holes. We find two crossed-ratchet effects of opposite sign that change the preferred sense for domain wall propagation, depending on whether a flat or a kinked wall is moving. By solving numerically a simple 4 model we show that the essential physical ingredients for this effect are quite generic and could be realized in other experimental systems involving elastic interfaces moving in multidimensional ratchet potentials.