Magnetostrictive domain walls in antiferromagnetic NiO.

Abstract

We report high-resolution observations of antiferromagnetic (AF) domain walls at the surface of NiO and determine the typical width of AF walls in this material to be of the order of 150 nm. We observe a number of different types of domain walls, including double walls caused by long-range interaction between walls. We describe the observed wall profiles by a model containing the exchange interaction and magnetostriction as basic ingredients. The good agreement of this model with experiment shows that the formation of walls between antiferromagnetic domains in NiO and their properties are dominated by magnetoelastic interactions.