Investigation of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and room temperature skyrmions in W/CoFeB/MgO thin films and microwires

Jaiswal, S.; Litzius, K.; Lemesh, I.; Büttner, F.; Finizio, S.; Raabe, J.; Weigand, M.; Lee, K.; Langer, J.; Ocker, B.; Jakob, G.; Beach, G. S.  D.; Kläui, M.

doi:10.1063/1.4991360

Investigation of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and room temperature skyrmions in W/CoFeB/MgO thin films and microwires

Journal Article · Thu Jul 13 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4991360· OSTI ID:1535323

Jaiswal, S. ^[1]; Litzius, K. ^[2]; Lemesh, I. ^[3]; Büttner, F. ^[3]; Finizio, S. ^[4]; ^[4]; Weigand, M. ^[5]; Lee, K. ^[6]; ^[7]; ^[7]; ^[8]; Beach, G. S. D. ^[3]; Kläui, M. ^[8]

Johannes Gutenberg Univ., Mainz (Germany); Singulus Technologies AG, Kahl am Main (Germany); DOE/OSTI
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.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

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, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 111; ISSN 0003-6951

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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