The aim of this thesis is to study the effect of the magnetic Oersted field on current-induced domain wall (DW) motion in IrPy bilayer nanostripes. We optimized the epitaxial growth of IrPy films on sapphire (0001) substrates with less structural defects, small surface and interface roughness and small coercive fields. This was expected to reduce the DW pinning and hence increase the DW mobility. Polycrystalline PtPy nanostripes prepared by sputtering were also studied to compare the results with epitaxial samples. A first direct evidence of the effect of the Oersted field on the magnetic configuration of magnetic nanostripes was given by V. Uhlir et al. using time-resolved XMCD-PEEM measurements. They observed a large tilt of the Py and CoFeB magnetization in the direction transverse to the stripes in CoCuPy and CoCuCoFeB trilayer nanostripes. We observed chirality switching of transverse walls induced by the Oersted field due to current pulses using magnetic force microscopy. DW motion was found to be stochastic due to DW pinning, which results in a distribution of velocities. DW motion opposite to the electron flow and DW transformations were also observed due to Joule heating. The large grain size (comparable to the stripe width) in our epitaxial bi-crystalline films with respect to the polycrystalline samples (~10nm) may be a possible source of pinning. Nevertheless, very high maximum DW velocities (up to 700 and 250m/s) for relatively low current densities (1.7 x1012 and 1 x1012 A/m2) were observed in epitaxial and sputtered samples respectively. These velocities are 2 to 5 times higher with similar or even smaller current densities than observed in single layer Py nanostripes, reported in the literature. The Oersted field may be at the origin of the high efficiency of the spin transfer torque in these bilayer stripes. Micromagnetic simulations performed in our group confirm that when a transverse magnetic field is applied in addition to a longitudinal field along the nanostripe for VW motion, the vortex core can be stabilized in the center of nanostripe, suppressing the core expulsion at the nanostripe edge and hence preventing the VW transformation. Similarly, it can stabilize transverse walls, preventing DW transformations. This can result in a shift of the Walker breakdown to higher fields/currents, resulting in an increase in DW velocity. Time-resolved XMCD-PEEM measurements will be performed in the near future to confirm the effect of the Oersted field on the DW motion.
