APS March Meeting 2014
Volume 59, Number 1
Monday–Friday, March 3–7, 2014;
Denver, Colorado
Session L7: Focus Session: Dynamics and Symmetries of Magnetic Domain Walls
8:00 AM–11:00 AM,
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Room: 106
Sponsoring
Units:
GMAG DMP
Chair: Haifeng Ding, Nanjing University, China
Abstract ID: BAPS.2014.MAR.L7.1
Abstract: L7.00001 : Chiral Magnetic Domain Wall Structure in Epitaxial Multilayers
8:00 AM–8:36 AM
Preview Abstract
Abstract
Author:
Yizheng Wu
(Physics department, Fudan University)
In magnetic ultrathin films, the common textbook picture distinguishes two
canonical types of DWs: Bloch walls for perpendicularly magnetized films and
N\'eel walls for in-plane magnetized films. It still remains an open question
whether the Bloch wall should be necessarily the only type of DWs in
perpendicularly magnetized ultrathin films although it has been the textbook
example for a long time. In ultrathin film, the inversion symmetry broken at
interface will induce Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI). In this talk,
we will show that the DMI at interface will induce the chiral N\'eel type
domain wall in perpendicularly magnetized films. The spin structure in
magnetic domain wall was identified in real-space at room temperature by
spin-polarized low energy electron microscopy (SPLEEM). The chiral N\'eel-type
domain wall was identified in the magnetic stripe domain phase in
Fe/Ni/Cu(001), and the chirality can switch from the right-hand cycloid in
Fe/Ni/Cu(001) to the left-hand cycloid in Ni/Fe/Cu(001), which indicates
that the chirality is caused by the DMI mainly located at the Fe/Ni
interface [1]. The chiral domain wall structure can also be observed in
[Co/Ni]$_{n}$ multilayer grown on Pt(111) and Ir(111)[2]. We found that
Pt(111) substrate can induce right-handed chirality, whereas Ir(111)
substrate can induce left-handed chirality, moreover, the chirality of the
DW evolves from right-handed to left-handed in [Co/Ni]$_{n}$ grown on
Ir/Pt(111) by changing Ir thickness, and the DW near the transition point
shows non-chiral Bloch-type. Our results prove that domain wall chirality
together with the sign and strength of the DMI can be tuned through the
interface engineering, which may enable more possibility for designing of
new spintronics devices.
This work was collaborated with G. Chen, J. Zhu, A. T. N'Diaye, T. P. Ma,
H.Y. Kwon, C. Won, Y. Huo, J. Li, A. K. Schmid.
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[1] G. Chen, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 177204 (2013).\\[0pt]
[2] G. Chen, et al., Nature Communication, 4,2671(2013).
To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2014.MAR.L7.1