Magnetic coupling of ferromagnetic stripe arrays: Analytical model for the α-β -phase coexistence regime of MnAs/GaAs(001)

We investigate the temperature-dependent hysteresis of the stripe state of MnAs thin films on GaAs(001) in the phase coexistence regime. The underlying magnetic domain structure is described employing an analytic model for stripe arrays with perpendicular anisotropy. In the framework of this model the magnetic properties of the MnAs stripe array can be unraveled as a combined effect of magnetostatic coupling of neighboring ferromagnetic stripes and the tendency to form antiparallel magnetic domains within the individual ferromagnetic stripes. The detailed analysis reveals the balance of demagnetization energy and domain-wall energy for the domain structure. It is capable to quantitatively predict the temperature dependency of the coercive field of MnAs thin films on GaAs(001) in the phase coexistence regime. Further, the analytic model allows for an understanding of the unusual magnetic reversal properties as a consequence of the temperature-driven geometrical variations in the stripe array. Here, it is the energy difference of the single and the multidomain states associated with the geometrical variations, which is the driving factor, rather than the temperature dependence of the magnetic properties themselves. Although the stripe array of MnAs thin films can be in an interstripe as well as in an intrastripe coupling state, the magnetization reversal is entirely determined by interstripe coupling.