Magnetic Anisotropy, Magnetostriction, and Magnetic Domain Walls in NiO. II. Experiment

Abstract

The so-called p-band patterns, i. e. , fine lamellar patterns observable within a single T-domain of NiO under a polarizing microscope, have been confirmed, with the use of X-ray techniques, to come from the magnetic domain structure due to the existence of S-walls, whose crystallographic aspects are just as predicted in the preceding paper. From observed behaviours of S-domains in applied magnetic fields, the easy directions of magnetization within the easy plane (111) are determined to be turnrightup.eps[11\bar2], but not turnrightup.eps[1\bar10]. By observing the domain structures with Berg-Barrett method, the magnitude of spontaneous magnetostriction is obtained as | e x ' x ' - e y ' y ' |=(9±3)×10 -5 and e z ' x ' /( e x ' x ' - e y ' y ' )=-0.18±0.06, where the x '-axis is taken along the spin axis, and the z '-axis along [111].