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We measure and analyze the chirality of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) stabilized spin textures in multilayers of Ta/Co$_{20}$Fe$_{60}$B$_{20}$/MgO. The effective DMI is measured experimentally using domain wall motion measurements, both in the presence (using spin orbit torques) and absence of driving currents (using magnetic fields). We observe that the current-induced domain wall motion yields a change in effective DMI magnitude and opposite domain wall chirality when compared to field-induced domain wall motion (without current). We explore this effect, which we refer to as current-induced DMI, by providing possible explanations for its emergence, and explore the possibilty of its manifestation in the framework of recent theoretical predictions of DMI modifications due to spin currents.

The Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) causes domain walls in perpendicular magnetized systems to adopt a homochiral configuration by winding in the same direction for both Up-Down and Down-Up walls. The topology of these domain walls is then distinct from the uniformly magnetized state. When two domain walls approach each other and are in close proximity they form winding pairs, stabilized by a dipolar repulsion. This can result in the formation of 360 {\deg} stable domain walls, whose stability is directly related to the magnitude of the additional dipolar interaction resulting from the spin structure governed by the DMI. Application of an external magnetic field can overcome the dipolar repulsion of the winding pairs and result in the annihilation of the domain walls, which is studied here in a combined theoretical and experimental effort. We present an extended analytical model that studies the interaction and modification of the dipolar interaction of the domain wall pairs under the application of in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic fields. We realize the experiment in a system of Ta/Co$_{20}$Fe$_{60}$B$_{20}$/MgO and observe that the results are in agreement with the behavior predicted by the analytical model. To compare and understand these results, we perform micromagnetic calculations to gauge the validity of the analytics and also include the full dipolar interactions which are present due to the device geometry. We find that our numerical and experimental studies are in agreement and that the DMI indeed provides an additional stability mechanism against annihilation of DWs, which is potentially useful in dense memory storage applications. Beyond implications for domain walls, understanding the interaction is an important step to understand and control the interaction of many spin structures that contain domain walls, such as skyrmions.

The interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) has been shown to stabilize homochiral N\'eel-type domain walls in thin films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and as a result permit them to be propagated by a spin Hall torque. In this study, we demonstrate that in Ta/Co$_{20}$Fe$_{60}$B$_{20}$/MgO the DMI may be influenced by annealing. We find that the DMI peaks at $D=0.057\pm0.003$ mJ/m$^{2}$ at an annealing temperature of 230 $^{\circ}$C. DMI fields were measured using a purely field-driven creep regime domain expansion technique. The DMI field and the anisotropy field follow a similar trend as a function of annealing temperature. We infer that the behavior of the DMI and the anisotropy are related to interfacial crystal ordering and B expulsion out of the CoFeB layer as the annealing temperature is increased., Comment: 5 pages and 4 figures

The recent observation of current-induced domain wall (DW) motion with large velocity in ultrathin magnetic wires has opened new opportunities for spintronic devices. However, there is still no consensus on the underlying mechanisms of DW motion. Key to this debate is the DW structure, which can be of Bloch or N\'eel type, and dramatically affects the efficiency of the different proposed mechanisms. To date, most experiments aiming to address this question have relied on deducing the DW structure and chirality from its motion under additional in-plane applied fields, which is indirect and involves strong assumptions on its dynamics. Here we introduce a general method enabling direct, in situ, determination of the DW structure in ultrathin ferromagnets. It relies on local measurements of the stray field distribution above the DW using a scanning nanomagnetometer based on the Nitrogen-Vacancy defect in diamond. We first apply the method to a Ta/Co40Fe40B20(1 nm)/MgO magnetic wire and find clear signature of pure Bloch DWs. In contrast, we observe left-handed N\'eel DWs in a Pt/Co(0.6 nm)/AlOx wire, providing direct evidence for the presence of a sizable Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) at the Pt/Co interface. This method offers a new path for exploring interfacial DMI in ultrathin ferromagnets and elucidating the physics of DW motion under current., Comment: Main text and Supplementary Information, 33 pages and 12 figures

We report current-induced domain wall motion (CIDWM) in Ta\Co20Fe60B20\MgO nanowires. Domain walls are observed to move against the electron flow when no magnetic field is applied, while a field along the nanowires strongly affects the domain wall motion direction and velocity. A symmetric effect is observed for up-down and down-up domain walls. This indicates the presence of right-handed domain walls, due to a Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) with a DMI coefficient D=+0.06 mJ/m2. The positive DMI coefficient is interpreted to be a consequence of boron diffusion into the tantalum buffer layer during annealing. In a Pt\Co68Fe22B10\MgO nanowire CIDWM along the electron flow was observed, corroborating this interpretation. The experimental results are compared to 1D-model simulations including the effects of pinning. This advanced modelling allows us to reproduce the experiment outcomes and reliably extract a spin-Hall angle {\theta}SH=-0.11 for Ta in the nanowires, showing the importance of an analysis that goes beyond the currently used model for perfect nanowires., Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures

We investigate the spin-dependent Seebeck coefficient and the tunneling magneto thermopower of CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ) in the presence of thermal gradients across the MTJ. Thermal gradients are generated by an electric heater on top of the nanopillars. The thermo power voltage across the MTJ is found to scale linearly with the heating power and reveals similar field dependence as the tunnel magnetoresistance. The amplitude of the thermal gradient is derived from calibration measurements in combination with finite element simulations of the heat flux. Based on this, large spin-dependent Seebeck coefficients of the order of (240 \pm 110) \muV/K are derived. From additional measurements on MTJs after dielectric breakdown, a tunneling magneto thermopower up to 90% can be derived for 1.5 nm MgO based MTJ nanopillars.

We study the tunneling magneto thermo power (TMTP) in CoFeB/MgO/CoFeB magnetic tunnel junction nanopillars. Thermal gradients across the junctions are generated by a micropatterned electric heater line. Thermo power voltages up to a few tens of \muV between the top and bottom contact of the nanopillars are measured which scale linearly with the applied heating power and hence with the applied temperature gradient. The thermo power signal varies by up to 10 \muV upon reversal of the relative magnetic configuration of the two CoFeB layers from parallel to antiparallel. This signal change corresponds to a large spin-dependent Seebeck coefficient of the order of 100 \muV/K and a large TMTP change of the tunnel junction of up to 90%., Comment: Revised version containing additional data and analyis. 13 pages, 3 figures