Detection of current-driven magnetic domains in [Co/Pd] nanowire by tunneling magnetoresistive sensor

Current-driven magnetic domain walls in magnetic nanowires have attracted a great deal of interest in terms of both physical studies and engineering applications. The anomalous Hall effect measurement is widely used for detecting the magnetization direction of current-driven magnetic domains in a magnetic nanowire. However, the problem with this measurement is that the detection point for current-driven domain wall motion is fixed at only the installed sensing wire across the specimen nanowire. A potential solution is the magnetic domain scope method, whereby the distribution of the magnetic flux leaking from the specimen can be analyzed directly by contact-scanning a tunneling magnetoresistive field sensor on a sample. In this study, we fabricated specimen nanowires consisting of [Co (0.3)/Pd (1.2)]21/Ta(3) films (units in nm) with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy on Si substrates. A tunneling magnetoresistive sensor was placed on the nanowire surface and a predetermined current pulse was applied. Real-time detection of the current-driven magnetic domain motion was successful in that the resistance of the tunneling magnetoresistive sensor was changed with the magnetization direction beneath the sensor. This demonstrates that magnetic domain detection using a tunneling magnetoresistive sensor is effective for the direct analysis of micro magnetic domain motion.