Nucleation, imaging and motion of magnetic domain walls in cylindrical nanowires

We report several procedures for the robust nucleation of magnetic domain walls in cylindrical permalloy nanowires. Specific features of the magnetic force microscopy contrast of such soft wires are discussed, with a view to avoid the misinterpretation of the magnetization states. The domain walls could be moved under quasistatic magnetic fields in the range 0.1–10 mT.