Measuring the Interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction in Layered GdCo Samples*

In this poster I will discuss our plans to measure the spin wave frequencies in magnetic GdCo samples capped with platinum (Pt) using Brillouin light scattering (BLS). As a result of the large spin-orbit interactions due to the platinum, these thin films are expected to possess a large interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI), which in turn, results in a frequency shift between surface spin waves that propagate in opposing directions. I will discuss how this frequency shift comes about and how it can be detected by BLS as a small difference in the photon frequency from that of the probe laser. We can select different wave vectors k for our spin waves by changing the angle of our sample with respect to the BLS probe laser. Measurements of the surface wave frequencies as a function of k, currently ongoing in our lab, will allow us to obtain a quantitative measurement of the interfacial DMI for these samples.