  We investigate the role of lithographically-induced strain relaxation in a
micron-scaled device fabricated from epitaxial thin films of the
magnetostrictive alloy Fe81Ga19. The strain relaxation due to lithographic
patterning induces a magnetic anisotropy that competes with the
magnetocrystalline and shape induced anisotropies to play a crucial role in
stabilising a flux-closing domain pattern. We use magnetic imaging,
micromagnetic calculations and linear elastic modelling to investigate a region
close to the edges of an etched structure. This highly-strained edge region has
a significant influence on the magnetic domain configuration due to an induced
magnetic anisotropy resulting from the inverse magnetostriction effect. We
investigate the competition between the strain-induced and shape-induced
anisotropy energies, and the resultant stable domain configurations, as the
width of the bar is reduced to the nanoscale range. Understanding this
behaviour will be important when designing hybrid magneto-electric spintronic
devices based on highly magnetostrictive materials.
