Field and current induced asymmetric domain wall motion in a giant magnetoresistance spin-valve stripe with a circular ring

Abstract

Giant magnetoresistance (GMR) signals and the magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE) are combined to investigate the asymmetric domain wall (DW) motion in a GMR spin-valve stripe consisting of a wire and a circular ring. In the propagation of a tail-to-tail DW, the left-hand side, top-half ring, bottom-half ring, and the right-hand side are reversed in sequence. However, in the propagation of a head-to-head DW, the left-hand side, bottom half-ring, right-hand side, and top-half ring are switched in sequence. In addition, the critical current density for DW depinning shows asymmetric behavior. For tail-to-tail DW depinning, the critical current density of negative current pulses are lower than that of current pulses in the positive direction, and vice versa for head-to-head DW depinning. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3676218]