Magnetic relaxation in thin Co films with in-plane magnetization

Magnetic relaxation along two nonequivalent axes has been investigated in Co films on stepped Cu(001) by magneto-optical Kerr effect and correlated to magnetic domain patterns and structural defects by spin-polarized scanning electron microscopy. The results show that nucleation is dominated by anisotropy rather than magnetostatics. Domain wall velocity is not constant for a given field, but depends on the initial state of the system.