Depinning field of a periodic domain wall array in vicinal nanowires

We report a theoretical investigation of the magnetic states and depinning field of a periodic array of head-to-head domain walls of flat Fe rectangular nanowires, exchange coupled with a vicinal two-sublattice uniaxial antiferromagnetic substrate. We show that for strong interface exchange energy, domain walls are pinned at interface steps perpendicular to the antiferromagnetic easy axis, separating terraces with opposite interface exchange field. The array sequence, which alternates head-to-head and tail-to-tail domain walls, may form a structure with alternate chirality or with the same chirality. The domain wall dipolar field affects the chirality sequence, which is tunable by the geometrical constraints and the strength of the interface exchange field. The depinning field of 10 nm thick, 1 mu m long wires, with widths of 100 and 200 nm, is of the order of the interface field strength, and the depinning process involves domain wall motion and the transversal displacement of a periodic array of vortices. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3067476]