  Magnetic domain structures are a fascinating area of study with interest
deriving both from technological applications and fundamental scientific
questions. The nature of the striped magnetic phases observed in ultra-thin
films is one such intriguing system. The non-equilibrium dynamics of such
systems as they evolve toward equilibrium has only recently become an area of
interest and previous work on model systems showed evidence of complex, slow
dynamics with glass-like properties as the stripes order mesoscopically. To aid
in the characterization of the observed phases and the nature of the
transitions observed in model systems we have developed an efficient method for
identifying clusters or domains in the spin system, where the clusters are
based on the stripe orientation. Thus we are able to track the growth and decay
of such clusters of stripes in a Monte Carlo simulation and observe directly
the nature of the slow dynamics. We have applied this method to consider the
growth and decay of ordered domains after a quench from a saturated magnetic
state to temperatures near and well below the critical temperature in the two
dimensional dipolar Ising model. We discuss our method of identifying stripe
domains or clusters of stripes within this model and present the results of our
investigations.
