Investigation of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and room temperature skyrmions in W/CoFeB/MgO thin films and microwires
- Johannes Gutenberg Univ., Mainz (Germany); Singulus Technologies AG, Kahl am Main (Germany)
- Johannes Gutenberg Univ., Mainz (Germany); Graduate School of Excellence, Mainz (Germany); Max Planck Inst. for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart (Germany)
- Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
- Paul Scherrer Inst. (PSI), Villigen (Switzerland). Swiss Light Source
- Max Planck Inst. for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart (Germany)
- Johannes Gutenberg Univ., Mainz (Germany)
- Singulus Technologies AG, Kahl am Main (Germany)
- Johannes Gutenberg Univ., Mainz (Germany); Graduate School of Excellence, Mainz (Germany)
Recent studies have shown that material structures, which lack structural inversion symmetry and have high spin-orbit coupling can exhibit chiral magnetic textures and skyrmions which could be a key component for next generation storage devices. The Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction (DMI) that stabilizes skyrmions is an anti-symmetric exchange interaction favoring non-collinear orientation of neighboring spins. It has been shown that materials systems with high DMI can lead to very efficient domain wall and skyrmion motion by spin-orbit torques. To engineer such devices, it is important to quantify the DMI for a given material system. Here, we extract the DMI at the Heavy Metal/Ferromagnet interface using two complementary measurement schemes, namely, asymmetric domain wall motion and the magnetic stripe annihilation. By using the two different measurement schemes, we find for W(5 nm)/Co20Fe60B20(0.6 nm)/MgO(2 nm) the DMI to be 0.68 ± 0.05 mJ/m2 and 0.73 ± 0.5 mJ/m2, respectively. Furthermore, we show that this DMI stabilizes skyrmions at room temperature and that there is a strong dependence of the DMI on the relative composition of the CoFeB alloy. Finally, we optimize the layers and the interfaces using different growth conditions and demonstrate that a higher deposition rate leads to a more uniform film with reduced pinning and skyrmions that can be manipulated by spin orbit torques.
- Research Organization:
- Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0012371
- OSTI ID:
- 1535323
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 111, Issue 2; ISSN 0003-6951
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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