Dresden 2020 – scientific programme
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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus
MA 23: Functional Antiferromagnetism
MA 23.1: Talk
Tuesday, March 17, 2020, 09:30–09:45, HSZ 401
Bloch lines in antiferromagnetic domain walls — •L. Kuerten1, M. C. Weber1, E. Hassanpour1, M. Trassin1, Y. Tokunaga2, Y. Taguchi3, Y. Tokura4, Th. Lottermoser1, and M. Fiebig1 — 1Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, Switzerland — 2Department of Advanced Materials Science, University of Tokyo, Japan — 3RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science, Japan — 4Department of Applied Physics, University of Tokyo, Japan
Bloch lines are topological defects in magnetic domain walls at which the magnetic chirality of the wall changes. While Bloch lines in ferromagnets have been extensively investigated, they have only been theoretically predicted in antiferromagnets. Here, we use low-temperature magnetic force microscopy to resolve Bloch lines in an antiferromagnetic domain wall for the first time. We perform our experiments in the orthoferrite DyFeO3, which transforms from a ferromagnetic to an antiferromagnetic phase at low temperature. By tracking the magnetic structure across the transition, we show that domains in one phase transform into domain walls of the other phase and vice-versa. We propose that antiferromagnetic Bloch lines emerge from previously existing Bloch lines in domain walls of the ferromagnetic phase – constituting the transfer of a topological defect of the spin structure across a phase transition.