Thermal-Driven Evolution of Magnetic Domain Structures in Ultrathin Films

The thermal-driven evolution of stripe domain structures in ultrathin magnetic films is analyzed with regard to temperature dependencies of the film magnetic parameters. In the vicinity of the Curie temperature or points of the spin reorientation the equilibrium stripe domain period was found to exponentially decrease with increasing temperature. It is shown that the temperature dependence of the characteristic length is the key parameter controlling the domain period changes. Irreversible and reversible changes of the domain period as well as the so-called inverse domain melting are discussed.