Deterministic magnetic domain wall motion induced by pulsed anisotropy energy

We propose a method to induce deterministic motion of a magnetic domain wall in a nanowire by inducing short strain pulses uniformly along the nanowire. Via inverse magnetostriction, a strain pulse causes the magnetic anisotropy to vary uniformly on a timescale comparable to the magnetisation dynamics. The resultant torque on the magnetic moments within the domain wall cause it to move along the nanowire. Using numerical calculations we analyse in detail the dependence of the domain wall's motion on the material's parameters and on the anisotropy pulse profile, and we consider the specific case of the anisotropy induced by voltage pulses applied to a hybrid piezoelectric/ferromagnet device. The method will be applicable to a range of magnetic textures including skyrmions, solitons, and domain walls in antiferromagnets, and is prospective for applications in a range of areas including ultra-energy efficient information storage and processing, communications technologies, position encoding and biomedical science. (paper)