SAW assisted domain wall motion in Co/Pt multilayers

The motion of domain walls in thin ferromagnetic films is of both fundamental and technological interest. In particular, the ability to use drivers other than magnetic fields to control the positions of domain walls could be exciting for memory applications. Here, we show that high frequency dynamic strain produced by surface acoustic waves is an efficient driver of magnetic domain walls in ferromagnetic films with perpendicular anisotropy. A standing surface acoustic wave of resonant frequency 96.6 MHz increases the domain wall velocities in thin films of [Co/Pt]n by an order of magnitude compared to magnetic fields alone. This effect is highly resonant, effectively ruling out thermal effects, and the velocity shows distinct variations in the domain wall velocity at the nodes and antinodes of the standing wave. The data indicate that standing strain waves can drive the domain wall motion from the creep to the flow regime as the amplitude increases. Hence, strain waves could provide an alternative route t...