2017/09/28 by Fernando Ajejas, Viola Křižáková, Viola Krizakova +7 · 51 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Domain (mathematical analysis) #Domain wall (magnetism) #Dynamics (music) #Ferromagnetism #Heusler alloys: electronic and magnetic properties #Layer (electronics) #Magnetic properties of thin films #Polar #Spintronics #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Work (physics) #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.5005798
published in Applied Physics Letters 111(20) (American Institute of Physics) · 5 pages, 4 Figures
arxiv created 2017/09/28 · openalex created_date 2017/10/06 · openalex publication_date 2017/11/13 · arxiv updated 2017/12/06 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We have studied a series of Pt/Co/M epitaxial trilayers, in which Co is sandwiched between Pt and a nonmagnetic layer M (Pt, Ir, Cu, and Al). Using polar magneto-optical Kerr microscopy, we show that the field-induced domain wall speeds are strongly dependent on the nature of the top layer, increase going from M = Pt to lighter top metallic overlayers, and can reach several 100 m/s for Pt/Co/Al. The domain wall (DW) dynamics is consistent with the presence of chiral Néel walls stabilized by the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) whose strength increases going from Pt to Al top layers. This is explained by the presence of DMI with opposite signs at the Pt/Co and Co/M interfaces, the latter increasing in strength going towards heavier atoms, possibly due to the increasing spin-orbit interaction. This work shows that in non-centrosymmetric trilayers, the domain wall dynamics can be finely tuned by engineering the DMI strength, in view of efficient devices for logic and spintronic applications.