Reducing crystal symmetry to generate out-of-plane Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction
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- Nanjing Univ. (China)
- Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul (Korea, Republic of)
- Anhui University, Hefei (China); Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Halle (Germany)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Center for Electron Microscopy and Molecular Foundry
- Fudan Univ., Shanghai (China)
- Georgetown Univ., Washington, DC (United States)
- Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Halle (Germany)
- Kyung Hee Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)
The Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya antisymmetric exchange interaction (DMI) stabilises topological spin textures with promising future spintronics applications. According to crystal symmetry, the DMI can be categorized as four different types that favour different chiral textures. Unlike the other three extensively-investigated types, out-of-plane DMI, as the last type that favours in-plane chirality, remained missing so far. Here we apply point-group-dependent DMI matrix analysis to show that out-of-plane DMI exists under reduced crystal symmetry. Through strain and structure engineering, we show how Cs symmetry is realized in ultrathin magnets and observe the out-of-plane DMI stabilised in-plane chirality using spin-polarized electron microscopy. Our results show that extremely low out-of-plane DMI strengths at µeV/atom are sufficient to stabilise topological spin textures, including merons and bimerons. We also demonstrate field-induced reversible control of the in-plane chirality and merons. Our findings open up untapped paths on topological magnetic textures and their potential applications.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- National Key Research and Development Program of China; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 2478737
- Journal Information:
- Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 15; ISSN 2041-1723
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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