Magnetoelastic domain structure in a film of a rhombic ferromagnet on a nonmagnetic substrate

Abstract A ground state of a tangentially magnetized ferromagnetic film of arbitrary thickness L on a massive substrate in the vicinity of the spin-reorientational phase transition (RPT) induced by temperature is studied. A new magnetoelastic phase with spatially modulated order parameter is predicted, the existence of which is associated with the magnetostriction coupling of magnetization to lattice deformation on the crystal interface. It is demonstrated that the RPT from the uniform to the domain phase is the second order one. A domain nucleation close to the RPT temperature is analyzed. The main parameters of a developed domain structure away from the RPT temperature are determined.