Pinning of a Bloch wall by diffusion of carbon atoms in a silicon-iron single crystal: an experimental study by means of an autoregressive spectrum analysis method

Abstract

Diffusion of interstitial carbon atoms in iron creates the phenomenon of the 'diffusion after-effect'. After a review of the main features of this effect, this paper reports on an experimental study of this phenomenon in a SiFe crystal. The various waveshapes generated by the motion of a single Bloch wall are analysed by an autoregressive signal processing technique which allows the study of the 'instantaneous' power spectrum. A simple model is proposed in order to account for the experimental results.