ZIGZAG FORM OF CHARGED DOMAIN-WALLS

Unusual domain walls have been found in ferrofluid patterns on thin film materials with low magnetization that is in or near the plane of the film. These walls carry a net magnetic charge and are characteristically kinked in a regular manner to form a zigzag. A simple account is given of the energetics of such walls whose form follows from a compromise between magnetostatic terms and the energy of anisotropy. It is argued that an array of closure domains at straight edges in these materials should have a boundary of similar character, and these too have been observed.