Creation and manipulation of surface magnetic domains in an alternating up-and-down pattern.

According to Lenz's law, the magnetic field from the oscillating magnetic probe will induce out-of-plane surface magnetic domains (SMDs) from the in-plane magnetization at the locally tapped points on a ferromagnetic La(0.7)Sr(0.3)MnO3 (LSMO) thin film. It was possible to control and manipulate the out-of-plane SMDs by varying the tapping intervals and changing the scanning direction. We also found that the anisotropic stresses from the out-of-plane SMDs caused the appearance of large-area straight striped domain structures on the order of several micrometers. Smaller oscillating magnetic probe tapping intervals produced larger periods (or widths) of the straight striped domain structure.