High-resolution observations of temperature-dependent magnetic domain structures withinGaxMn1−xAsby Lorentz microscopy

Abstract

The observation of magnetic domain structures within an in-plane magnetized ${\mathrm{Ga}}_{x}{\mathrm{Mn}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}\mathrm{As}$ dilute magnetic semiconductor on the submicronmeter scale by Lorentz microscopy is described. A micronmeter-scale domain substructure is found to be characteristic of the micromagnetics of the ${\mathrm{Ga}}_{x}{\mathrm{Mn}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}\mathrm{As}$ sample. Due to the competition of temperature-dependent biaxial and uniaxial anisotropy, conventional zigzag and unusual segmented domain structures are identified, with the latter exhibiting spontaneous reorganization with varying temperature. The experimental results are compared with micromagnetic simulations.