Tunable Remote Pinning of Domain Walls in Magnetic Nanowires

Domain wall (DW) pinning in ferromagnetic nanowires is in general a complex process. Distortions of the DW shape make quantitative agreement between modeling and experiment difficult. Here we demonstrate pinning using nanometer scale localized stray fields. This type of interaction gives well-characterized, tailorable potential landscapes that do not appreciably distort the DW. Our experimental results are in excellent quantitative agreement with an Arrhenius-Neel model of depinning—a result only possible when the modeled potential profile agrees fully with that experienced by the DW.