Tuning interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions in thin amorphous ferrimagnetic alloys
Abstract
Skyrmions can be stabilized in magnetic systems with broken inversion symmetry and chiral interactions, such as Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions (DMI). Further, compensation of magnetic moments in ferrimagnetic materials can significantly reduce magnetic dipolar interactions, which tend to favor large skyrmions. Tuning DMI is essential to control skyrmion properties, with symmetry breaking at interfaces offering the greatest flexibility. However, in contrast to the ferromagnet case, few studies have investigated interfacial DMI in ferrimagnets. Here we present a systematic study of DMI in ferrimagnetic CoGd films by Brillouin light scattering. We demonstrate the ability to control DMI by the CoGd cap layer composition, the stack symmetry and the ferrimagnetic layer thickness. The DMI thickness dependence confirms its interfacial nature. In addition, magnetic force microscopy reveals the ability to tune DMI in a range that stabilizes sub-100 nm skyrmions at room temperature in zero field. Our work opens new paths for controlling interfacial DMI in ferrimagnets to nucleate and manipulate skyrmions.
- Authors:
-
- New York Univ. (NYU), NY (United States). Dept. of Physics. Center for Quantum Phenomena
- Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States). Dept. of Physics
- National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, CO (United States). Quantum Electromagnetics Division; Univ. of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States). Center for Memory and Recording Research
- National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, CO (United States). Quantum Electromagnetics Division
- National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, CO (United States). Quantum Electromagnetics Division; Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). JILA
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1803322
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0018237
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Scientific Reports
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 10; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2045-2322
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing Group
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; Science & Technology - Other Topics
Citation Formats
Quessab, Y., Xu, J-W., Ma, C. T., Zhou, W., Riley, G. A., Shaw, J. M., Nembach, H. T., Poon, S. J., and Kent, A. D. Tuning interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions in thin amorphous ferrimagnetic alloys. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-64427-0.
Quessab, Y., Xu, J-W., Ma, C. T., Zhou, W., Riley, G. A., Shaw, J. M., Nembach, H. T., Poon, S. J., & Kent, A. D. Tuning interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions in thin amorphous ferrimagnetic alloys. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64427-0
Quessab, Y., Xu, J-W., Ma, C. T., Zhou, W., Riley, G. A., Shaw, J. M., Nembach, H. T., Poon, S. J., and Kent, A. D. Mon .
"Tuning interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions in thin amorphous ferrimagnetic alloys". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64427-0. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1803322.
@article{osti_1803322,
title = {Tuning interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions in thin amorphous ferrimagnetic alloys},
author = {Quessab, Y. and Xu, J-W. and Ma, C. T. and Zhou, W. and Riley, G. A. and Shaw, J. M. and Nembach, H. T. and Poon, S. J. and Kent, A. D.},
abstractNote = {Skyrmions can be stabilized in magnetic systems with broken inversion symmetry and chiral interactions, such as Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions (DMI). Further, compensation of magnetic moments in ferrimagnetic materials can significantly reduce magnetic dipolar interactions, which tend to favor large skyrmions. Tuning DMI is essential to control skyrmion properties, with symmetry breaking at interfaces offering the greatest flexibility. However, in contrast to the ferromagnet case, few studies have investigated interfacial DMI in ferrimagnets. Here we present a systematic study of DMI in ferrimagnetic CoGd films by Brillouin light scattering. We demonstrate the ability to control DMI by the CoGd cap layer composition, the stack symmetry and the ferrimagnetic layer thickness. The DMI thickness dependence confirms its interfacial nature. In addition, magnetic force microscopy reveals the ability to tune DMI in a range that stabilizes sub-100 nm skyrmions at room temperature in zero field. Our work opens new paths for controlling interfacial DMI in ferrimagnets to nucleate and manipulate skyrmions.},
doi = {10.1038/s41598-020-64427-0},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
number = 1,
volume = 10,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon May 04 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Mon May 04 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
Other availability
Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.
Works referenced in this record:
Current-driven dynamics and inhibition of the skyrmion Hall effect of ferrimagnetic skyrmions in GdFeCo films
journal, March 2018
- Woo, Seonghoon; Song, Kyung Mee; Zhang, Xichao
- Nature Communications, Vol. 9, Issue 1
Thickness dependence of ferrimagnetic compensation in amorphous rare-earth transition-metal thin films
journal, October 2018
- Ma, Chung Ting; Kirby, Brian J.; Li, Xiaopu
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 17
Robust Formation of Ultrasmall Room-Temperature Neél Skyrmions in Amorphous Ferrimagnets from Atomistic Simulations
journal, July 2019
- Ma, Chung Ting; Xie, Yunkun; Sheng, Howard
- Scientific Reports, Vol. 9, Issue 1
A thermodynamic theory of “weak” ferromagnetism of antiferromagnetics
journal, January 1958
- Dzyaloshinsky, I.
- Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids, Vol. 4, Issue 4
Room-temperature chiral magnetic skyrmions in ultrathin magnetic nanostructures
journal, January 2016
- Boulle, Olivier; Vogel, Jan; Yang, Hongxin
- Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 11, Issue 5
Path to collapse for an isolated Néel skyrmion
journal, June 2016
- Rohart, S.; Miltat, J.; Thiaville, A.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 93, Issue 21
Chirality-Induced Asymmetric Magnetic Nucleation in Ultrathin Microstructures
journal, July 2014
- Pizzini, S.; Vogel, J.; Rohart, S.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 113, Issue 4
Additive interfacial chiral interaction in multilayers for stabilization of small individual skyrmions at room temperature
journal, January 2016
- Moreau-Luchaire, C.; Moutafis, C.; Reyren, N.
- Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 11, Issue 5
Skyrmions on the track
journal, March 2013
- Fert, Albert; Cros, Vincent; Sampaio, João
- Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 8, Issue 3
Anatomy of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction at Interfaces
journal, December 2015
- Yang, Hongxin; Thiaville, André; Rohart, Stanislas
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 115, Issue 26
Hund’s Rule-Driven Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction at Interfaces
journal, December 2016
- Belabbes, A.; Bihlmayer, G.; Bechstedt, F.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 117, Issue 24
Skyrmion Lattice in a Chiral Magnet
journal, February 2009
- Muhlbauer, S.; Binz, B.; Jonietz, F.
- Science, Vol. 323, Issue 5916
Chiral spin torque at magnetic domain walls
journal, June 2013
- Ryu, Kwang-Su; Thomas, Luc; Yang, See-Hun
- Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 8, Issue 7
Linear relation between Heisenberg exchange and interfacial Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction in metal films
journal, August 2015
- Nembach, Hans T.; Shaw, Justin M.; Weiler, Mathias
- Nature Physics, Vol. 11, Issue 10
Current-induced skyrmion generation and dynamics in symmetric bilayers
journal, June 2017
- Hrabec, A.; Sampaio, J.; Belmeguenai, M.
- Nature Communications, Vol. 8, Issue 1
Observation of room-temperature magnetic skyrmions and their current-driven dynamics in ultrathin metallic ferromagnets
journal, February 2016
- Woo, Seonghoon; Litzius, Kai; Krüger, Benjamin
- Nature Materials, Vol. 15, Issue 5
Current-Driven Skyrmion Dynamics and Drive-Dependent Skyrmion Hall Effect in an Ultrathin Film
journal, October 2019
- Juge, Roméo; Je, Soong-Geun; Chaves, Dayane de Souza
- Physical Review Applied, Vol. 12, Issue 4
Bulk Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction in amorphous ferrimagnetic alloys
journal, May 2019
- Kim, Duck-Ho; Haruta, Mitsutaka; Ko, Hye-Won
- Nature Materials, Vol. 18, Issue 7
Measuring and tailoring the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in perpendicularly magnetized thin films
journal, July 2014
- Hrabec, A.; Porter, N. A.; Wells, A.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 90, Issue 2
Theory of isolated magnetic skyrmions: From fundamentals to room temperature applications
journal, March 2018
- Büttner, Felix; Lemesh, Ivan; Beach, Geoffrey S. D.
- Scientific Reports, Vol. 8, Issue 1
Enhancement of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and domain wall velocity through interface intermixing in Ta/CoFeB/MgO
journal, February 2019
- Diez, L. Herrera; Voto, M.; Casiraghi, A.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 99, Issue 5
Memory functions of magnetic skyrmions
journal, April 2015
- Koshibae, Wataru; Kaneko, Yoshio; Iwasaki, Junichi
- Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 54, Issue 5
Disentangling factors governing Dzyaloshinskii domain-wall creep in Co/Ni thin films using seed layers
journal, November 2018
- Lau, D.; Pellegren, J. P.; Nembach, H. T.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 98, Issue 18
Fast current-driven domain walls and small skyrmions in a compensated ferrimagnet
journal, September 2018
- Caretta, Lucas; Mann, Maxwell; Büttner, Felix
- Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 13, Issue 12
Creep and Flow Regimes of Magnetic Domain-Wall Motion in Ultrathin Films with Perpendicular Anisotropy
journal, November 2007
- Metaxas, P. J.; Jamet, J. P.; Mougin, A.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 99, Issue 21
Spin-orbit torque-driven skyrmion dynamics revealed by time-resolved X-ray microscopy
journal, May 2017
- Woo, Seonghoon; Song, Kyung Mee; Han, Hee-Sung
- Nature Communications, Vol. 8, Issue 1
A theory on skyrmion size
journal, July 2018
- Wang, X. S.; Yuan, H. Y.; Wang, X. R.
- Communications Physics, Vol. 1, Issue 1
Spin transfer torque devices utilizing the giant spin Hall effect of tungsten
journal, September 2012
- Pai, Chi-Feng; Liu, Luqiao; Li, Y.
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 101, Issue 12
Interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in perpendicularly magnetized ultrathin films measured by Brillouin light spectroscopy
journal, May 2015
- Belmeguenai, Mohamed; Adam, Jean-Paul; Roussigné, Yves
- Physical Review B, Vol. 91, Issue 18
Effect of interfacial intermixing on the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in Pt/Co/Pt
journal, February 2017
- Wells, Adam W. J.; Shepley, Philippa M.; Marrows, Christopher H.
- Physical Review B, Vol. 95, Issue 5
Anisotropic Superexchange Interaction and Weak Ferromagnetism
journal, October 1960
- Moriya, Tôru
- Physical Review, Vol. 120, Issue 1
Room-Temperature Current-Induced Generation and Motion of sub-100 nm Skyrmions
journal, March 2017
- Legrand, William; Maccariello, Davide; Reyren, Nicolas
- Nano Letters, Vol. 17, Issue 4
Giant Spin Hall Effect and Switching Induced by Spin-Transfer Torque in a Structure with Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy
journal, March 2015
- Hao, Qiang; Xiao, Gang
- Physical Review Applied, Vol. 3, Issue 3
Experimental Evidence of Chiral Ferrimagnetism in Amorphous GdCo Films
journal, May 2018
- Streubel, Robert; Lambert, Charles-Henri; Kent, Noah
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 30, Issue 27
Magnetic skyrmion logic gates: conversion, duplication and merging of skyrmions
journal, March 2015
- Zhang, Xichao; Ezawa, Motohiko; Zhou, Yan
- Scientific Reports, Vol. 5, Issue 1
Nonvolatile Ionic Modification of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction
journal, September 2019
- Herrera Diez, L.; Liu, Y. T.; Gilbert, D. A.
- Physical Review Applied, Vol. 12, Issue 3
Enhancing domain wall velocity through interface intermixing in W-CoFeB-MgO films with perpendicular anisotropy
journal, September 2019
- Zhao, Xiaoxuan; Zhang, Boyu; Vernier, Nicolas
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 115, Issue 12
Current-Induced Skyrmion Generation through Morphological Thermal Transitions in Chiral Ferromagnetic Heterostructures
journal, October 2018
- Lemesh, Ivan; Litzius, Kai; Böttcher, Marie
- Advanced Materials, Vol. 30, Issue 49
Interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction in Films: Effect of the Heavy-Metal Thickness
journal, April 2017
- Tacchi, S.; Troncoso, R. E.; Ahlberg, M.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 118, Issue 14
Quantitative accordance of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction between domain-wall and spin-wave dynamics
journal, December 2019
- Kim, Dae-Yun; Kim, Nam-Hui; Park, Yong-Keun
- Physical Review B, Vol. 100, Issue 22