Publications Repository - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

The surface spin flop, observed in synthetic antiferromagnets (SAFs) with uniaxial anisotropy and
strong antiferromagnetic (AF) interlayer exchange coupling, can be considered as a laterally homoge-
neous, vertical AF domain wall pushed into the SAF from either the top or the bottom in the presence
of a strong external vertical magnetic field. As a result, the AF domain wall can be described as a one-
dimensional entity. In this work, we present a concept to stabilize laterally homogeneous vertical AF
domain walls by local variation of the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in Co/Pt-based SAFs. Our
approach not only allows the stabilization of the vertical AF domain wall in the absence of any exter-
nal magnetic field, but furthermore enables a deterministic selection among four different remanent states,
each one stable within a broad external magnetic field range of almost one tesla. We also demonstrate an
extension to our concept by stabilizing two coexisting vertical AF domain walls, thus yielding a system
with a total of six different selectable (and reprogrammable) remanent states. The controlled stabiliza-
tion of noncollinear AF textures in the form of vertical AF domain walls at remanence could be used as
an infrastructure for propagating spin waves within the AF domain wall itself, as well as for tuning the
dynamic behavior of perpendicular standing spin wave modes existing vertically across the SAF.