In conducting ferromagnetic materials, a moving domain wall induces eddy currents in the sample, which give rise to an effective retarding pressure on the domain wall. We show here that the pressure is not just proportional to the instantaneous velocity of the wall, as often assumed in domain wall models, but depends on the history of the motion. We calculate the retarding pressure by solving the Maxwell equations for the field generated by the eddy currents and show how its effect can be accounted for by associating a negative effective mass to the magnetic wall. We analyze the dependence of this effect on the sample geometry and discuss the implications for the Barkhausen noise measurements.

• Received 12 June 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.76.224416