Effect of a Pinning Field on the Critical Current Density for Current-Induced Domain Wall Motion in Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy Nanowires

Abstract

In this study, the effect of a pinning field on the critical current density for current-induced domain wall motion in nanowires with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy was investigated using micromagnetic simulations. In order to estimate the pinning field in notched nanowires, we conducted wall energy calculations for nanowires with various saturation magnetizations. The pinning field increased as the notch size increased. The pinning field decreased as the saturation magnetization decreased. As a result, the decreased in the pinning field causes the reduction of the critical current density. Therefore, a significant reduction of the critical current density can be obtained by decreasing the saturation magnetization, even if wall pinning occurs.