Magnetoresistance due to domain walls in an epitaxial microfabricated Fe wire

The domain wall (DW) contribution to magnetoresistance has been investigated using an epitaxial microfabricated bcc (110) Fe wires of 2 μm linewidth. A strong in-plane uniaxial component to the magnetic anisotropy perpendicular to the wire axis causes a regular stripe domain pattern with closure domains. The stripe domain width in zero-applied magnetic field is strongly affected by the magnetic history and can be continuously varied from 0.45 to 1.8 μm. This enables a measurement of the resistivity as a function of DW density in a single wire. Clear evidence is presented that the resistivity is reduced in the presence of DWs at low temperatures. © 1998 American Institute of Physics.