1. Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction across an Antiferromagnet-Ferromagnet Interface
- Author
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Sarah H. Tolbert, Kai Hao, Xiang Li, Xin Ma, Guoqiang Yu, Stephen S. Sasaki, Kang L. Wang, Seyed Armin Razavi, and Xiaoqin Li
- Subjects
Condensed Matter - Materials Science ,Materials science ,Condensed matter physics ,Spins ,Skyrmion ,Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) ,FOS: Physical sciences ,General Physics and Astronomy ,02 engineering and technology ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,Coupling (probability) ,01 natural sciences ,Light scattering ,Brillouin zone ,Ferromagnetism ,0103 physical sciences ,Antiferromagnetism ,Condensed Matter::Strongly Correlated Electrons ,010306 general physics ,0210 nano-technology ,Spin-½ - Abstract
The antiferromagnet- (AFM-)ferromagnet (FM) interfaces are of central importance in recently developed pure electric or ultrafast control of FM spins, where the underlying mechanisms remain unresolved. Here we report the direct observation of an Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) across the AFM-FM interface of $\mathrm{IrMn}/\mathrm{CoFeB}$ thin films. The interfacial DMI is quantitatively measured from the asymmetric spin-wave dispersion in the FM layer using Brillouin light scattering. The DMI strength is enhanced by a factor of 7 with increasing IrMn layer thickness in the range of 1--7.5 nm. Our findings provide deeper insight into the coupling at the AFM-FM interface and may stimulate new device concepts utilizing chiral spin textures such as magnetic Skyrmions in AFM-FM heterostructures.
- Published
- 2017