Growth-Dependent Interlayer Chiral Exchange and Field-Free Switching
Journal
Physical Review Applied
Journal Volume
18
Journal Issue
3
Date Issued
2022-09-01
Author(s)
Abstract
The interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) has long been observed in normal metal/ferromagnetic multilayers, enabling the formation of chiral domain walls, skyrmions, and other two-dimensional antisymmetric spin textures confined within a single ferromagnetic layer, while more recent works on the interlayer DMI reveal alternative pathways for realizing chiral three-dimensional spin textures by extending the DMI to two spatially distinct magnetic layers. Here, we report on the interlayer DMI between two orthogonally magnetized ferromagnetic layers (Co-Fe-B/Co) mediated by a Pt layer and confirm the chiral nature of the observed effective field of up to 37 Oe through asymmetric hysteresis loops under an in-plane field. We highlight the importance of growth-induced in-plane symmetry breaking, resulting in a sizable interlayer DMI and a universal characteristic vector through wedge deposition of the samples. We further perform deterministic current-driven magnetization switching in the perpendicularly magnetized Co layer utilizing solely the effective field from the interlayer DMI. These results demonstrate the interlayer DMI's potential to facilitate deterministic field-free switching in spin-memory applications.
Subjects
SPIN-ORBIT TORQUE; PERPENDICULAR MAGNETIC-ANISOTROPY; SKYRMIONS; DRIVEN; Physics - Materials Science; Physics - Materials Science
Publisher
AMER PHYSICAL SOC
Description
22 pages, 3 figures
Type
journal article