Magnetic domain wall pinning by kinks in magnetic nanostripes

We report a combined micromagnetic and experimental study dealing with the influence of the nanostripe geometry on the domain wall (DW) pinning at kinks in nanostripes. For both, the experiments as well the simulations, we varied the geometry parameters namely the kink angle, the nanostripe width and thickness. The depinning fields of the DW was found to increase with the kink angle, the nanostripe width as well as the nanostripe thickness. Exceptions from this general trend can be explained by different depinning mechanisms, which could be determined by the micromagnetic simulations. Experimental investigations yielded the same trends, however for small kink angles the pinning strength generated by the nanostripe edge roughness was larger compared to the one of the kink.