Solitons and edge domains in multilayers

Edge-domain wall controls the switching behaviour in ultra-thin films and understanding them is of fundamental importance. The edge domains in an anti-parallel coupled bilayer magnetic him can be well reproduced by the analytic exact two-solition solution of the imaginary time Sine-Gordon equation. For a single-layer film, the domain pattern deviates slightly from the two-soliton equation because of uncompensated magnetic charges near the corners and at the domain walls. As the number of the layers is increased and switches between even and odd, the domain pattern also switches between these two limits. The deviation from the two soliton solution becomes smaller because the net uncompensated magnetic charge per unit layer decreases. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.