Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Hrabec, A.
• Porter, N. A.
• Wells, A.
• Benitez, M. J.
• Burnell, G.
• McVitie, S.
• McGrouther, D.
• Moore, T. A.
• Marrows, C. H.

Titel

Measuring and tailoring the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in perpendicularly magnetized thin films

Ist Teil von

• Physical review. B, Condensed matter and materials physics, 2014-07, Vol.90 (2), Article 020402

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

PROLA - Physical Review Online Archive

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• We investigate the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions (DMIs) in perpendicularly magnetized thin films of Pt/Co/Pt and Pt/Co/Ir/Pt. To study the effective DMI, arising at either side of the ferromagnet, we use a field-driven domain wall creep-based method. The use of only magnetic field removes the possibility of mixing with current-related effects such as spin Hall effect or Rashba field, as well as the complexity arising from lithographic patterning. Inserting an ultrathin layer of Ir at the top Co/Pt interface allows us to access the DMI contribution from the top Co/Pt interface. We show that the insertion of a thin Ir layer leads to reversal of the sign of the effective DMI acting on the sandwiched Co layer, and therefore continuously changes the domain wall structure from the right- to the left-handed Neel wall. The use of two DMI-active layers offers an efficient way of DMI tuning and enhancement in thin magnetic films. The comparison with an epitaxial Pt/Co/Pt multilayer sheds more light on the origin of DMI in polycrystalline Pt/Co/Pt films and demonstrates an exquisite sensitivity to the exact details of the atomic structure at the film interfaces.