With modern lithographic patterning techniques the fabrication of magnetic structures on a lengthscale comparable with that of magnetic domains and domain walls (DWs) has become prevalent. Studies on such structures have improved our understanding of fundamental magnetic and magnetisation reversal processes and also show potential for the development of novel spintronic devices.

Engineering of nanostructure geometry and applied field sequences have become a popular approach to investigate DWs and their interaction with geometrical structural features. Much of this previous work considers the quasi-static field driven behaviour of DWs with features described by their magnetisation, chirality and topology governed by energy minimisation effects.

More recently, an increasing interest in DW dynamics has developed due to the high speeds required for the development of novel spintronic devices. In this regime, time-dependent changes in micromagnetic structure become significant over the minimised energy states which dominate the quasi-static regime. Propagating DWs have distorted structures; and with driving fields in excess of the Walker field even periodic transformations in DW type and chirality take place.

In this work both experimental focussed MOKE techniques and micromagnetic simulations are used to explore these dynamic effects for a DW arriving at a nanowire vertex. The final trajectory shows how dynamic effects can dominate over a quasi-static understanding of this system. This work has implications for future technological applications as well as suggesting processes that may govern magnetisation reversal in artificial spin ice structures comprising of many nanowire vertices.