INFLUENCE OF INTERNAL MAGNETOSTRICTION ON FORMATION OF PERIODIC MAGNETIZATION CONFIGURATIONS

Using a general argument which enables the stresses due to a magnetic configuration to be described by effective dislocation densities, it is shown that isolated non-180° walls in infinite media are not stable, but that periodic configurations of such walls have a very small magnetostriction energy and are thus not forbidden. Such structures are described for iron (walls parallel to (100) planes) and nickel (walls parallel to (110) planes). The variation of the periodicity and the energy is calculated as a function of the maximum angular amplitude of the magnetization. It is suggested that such periodic configurations are related to the so-called stripe domains observed in thin foils above a critical thickness. © 1969, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.