Spatiotemporal Patterns in Ultraslow Domain Wall Creep Dynamics

Ezequiel E. Ferrero, Laura Foini, Thierry Giamarchi, Alejandro B. Kolton, and Alberto Rosso
Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 147208 – Published 7 April 2017
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Abstract

In the presence of impurities, ferromagnetic and ferroelectric domain walls slide only above a finite external field. Close to this depinning threshold, they proceed by large and abrupt jumps called avalanches, while, at much smaller fields, these interfaces creep by thermal activation. In this Letter, we develop a novel numerical technique that captures the ultraslow creep regime over huge time scales. We point out the existence of activated events that involve collective reorganizations similar to avalanches, but, at variance with them, display correlated spatiotemporal patterns that resemble the complex sequence of aftershocks observed after a large earthquake. Remarkably, we show that events assemble in independent clusters that display at large scales the same statistics as critical depinning avalanches. We foresee these correlated dynamics being experimentally accessible by magnetooptical imaging of ferromagnetic films.

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  • Received 8 July 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.147208

© 2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Statistical Physics & ThermodynamicsCondensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Ezequiel E. Ferrero1,*, Laura Foini2, Thierry Giamarchi2, Alejandro B. Kolton3, and Alberto Rosso4

  • 1Université Grenoble Alpes, LIPHY, F-38000 Grenoble, France and CNRS, LIPHY, F-38000 Grenoble, France
  • 2Department of Quantum Matter Physics, University of Geneva, 24 Quai Ernest-Ansermet, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland
  • 3Instituto Balseiro-UNCu and CONICET, Centro Atómico Bariloche, 8400 Bariloche, Argentina
  • 4LPTMS, CNRS, Université Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay, France

  • *Present address: Department of Physics, University of Milano, via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy. ezequiel.ferrero@unimi.it

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Issue

Vol. 118, Iss. 14 — 7 April 2017

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