Magnetic domain wall pinning by kinks in magnetic nanostripes

We report a combined micromagnetic and experimental study dealing with the influence of the nanostripe geometry on the domain wall (DW) pinning at kinks in nanostripes. For both the experiments as well as the simulations, we varied the geometry parameters, namely, the kink angle, the nanostripe width, and the nanostripe thickness. The depinning fields of the DW were found to increase with the kink angle, the nanostripe width, and the nanostripe thickness. Exceptions to this general trend can be explained by different depinning mechanisms, which could be determined by the micromagnetic simulations. Experimental investigations yielded the same trends; however, for small kink angles the pinning strength generated by the nanostripe edge roughness was larger compared to that of the kink.