Ferroelectric domain wall relaxation in Ba 0.25 Sr 0.75 Ti O 3 films displaying Curie-Weiss behaviorWe investigated the local coupling between dense magnetic stripe domains in transcritical permalloy (tPy) thin films and ferroelectric domains of BaTiO 3 single crystals in a tPy/BaTiO 3 heterostructure. Two distinct changes in the magnetic stripe domains of tPy were observed from the magnetic force microscopy images after cooling the heterostructure from above the ferroelectric Curie temperature of BaTiO 3 (120 C) to room temperature. First, an abrupt break in the magnetic stripe domain direction was found at the ferroelectric a-c-domain boundaries due to an induced change in in-plane magnetic anisotropy. Second, the magnetic stripe domain period increased when coupled to a ferroelectric a-domain due to a change in out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy. Micromagnetic simulations reveal that local magnetic anisotropy energy from inverse magnetostriction is conserved between in-plane and out-of-plane components. V C 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.