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Electron Holography Studies on Narrow Magnetic Domain Walls Observed in a Heusler Alloy Ni 50 Mn 25 Al 12.5 Ga 12.5
Author(s) -
Park Hyun Soon,
Murakami Yasukazu,
Yanagisawa Keiichi,
Matsuda Tsuyoshi,
Kainuma Ryosuke,
Shindo Daisuke,
Tonomura Akira
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.201103052
Subject(s) - electron holography , materials science , ferromagnetism , spintronics , condensed matter physics , magnetic domain , alloy , electron , domain wall (magnetism) , phase (matter) , magnetic shape memory alloy , nanotechnology , magnetic field , metallurgy , magnetization , physics , transmission electron microscopy , quantum mechanics
Peculiar magnetic domain walls produced in Heusler alloys, which have attracted renewed interest due to their potential application to actuators and spintronic devices, are studied here using electron holography. The observations reveal unexpectedly narrow magnetic domain walls, the width of which showed perfect agreement with that of the antiphase boundaries (APB, e.g., only 3 nm). While the results can be explained by the significant depression of ferromagnetism due to the local chemical disorder, the electron phase shift indicates that ferromagnetic correlation still remains in the APB region.