Electric properties of generalized domain walls and spin spirals in permalloy

In using the fully relativistic versions of the screened Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker method and of the Kubo-Greenwood equation for permalloy, Ni(85)Fe(15), the equilibrium width of generalized domain walls and the corresponding resistivities are calculated for the case that the orientations of the magnetization in the two domains separated by a wall form a relative angle, which is assumed to vary continuously between 0 degrees and 360 degrees. It is found, e.g., that the width of a 90 degrees domain wall is shorter by 100 nm than the one for a 180 degrees domain wall yielding a reduction in the anisotropic magnetoresistance ratio (AMR), which as compared to the bulk value (no domain wall present) is even larger than that for a 180 degrees domain wall. In particular it is demonstrated that the reduction in the AMR of generalized domain walls can safely be correlated with the anisotropy contribution to their formation energies.