Atomically sharp magnetic domain wall in thin film Fe(110): A first principles noncollinear magnetism study

Magnetic domain wall structures in an Fe (110) monolayer are determined by the highly precise first principles full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave method including intra-atomic noncollinear magnetism. The self-consistent results demonstrate that the magnetization changes from one orientation to the opposite (180degrees) orientation within an 8 Angstrom width without any abrupt rotation. This narrow domain wall is found to arise from band effects. Our results are consistent with and support domain walls having a 6 Angstrom width recently observed in spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy experiments.