Dependence of pinning on domain wall spin structure and notch geometry

In this work, we present a systematic investigation of the domain wall spin structure and notch geometries on the pinning field strength. We observed that for transverse domain wall, pinning is strongly dependent on the transversely varying energy profile of the wall. Domain walls are pinned at notches only when the notch provides a barrier to the higher energy component of the domain wall. For all notch shapes investigated, we observed that when the notch height/nanowire width > 0.3, the depinning field reaches a maximum and remains constant. We also note that the pinning of a domain wall at a notch is markedly sensitive to the angle of the notch with respect to the domain wall.