On the Zigzag Form of Charged Domain Walls

Unusual domain walls have been found in ferrofluid patterns on thin film materials with low magnetization that is in or near the plane of the film. These walls carry a net magnetic charge and are characteristically kinked in a regular manner to form a zigzag. A simple account is given of the energetics of such walls whose form follows from a compromise between magnetostatic terms and the energy of anisotropy. It is argued that an array of closure domains at straight edges in these materials should have a boundary of similar character, and these too have been observed.