Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida-type interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in heavy metal/ferromagnet heterostructures.

Kim, Taehyun; Cha, In Ho; Kim, Yong Jin; Kim, Gyu Won; Stashkevich, Andrey; Roussigné, Yves; Belmeguenai, Mohamed; Chérif, Salim M et al. · Nat Commun · 2021

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The manipulation of magnetization with interfacial modification using various spin-orbit coupling phenomena has been recently revisited due to its scientific and technological potential for next-generation memory devices. Herein, we experimentally and theoretically demonstrate the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction characteristics penetrating through a MgO dielectric layer inserted between the Pt and CoFeSiB. The inserted MgO layer seems to function as a chiral exchange interaction mediator of the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction from the heavy metal atoms to ferromagnet ones. The potential physical mechanism of the anti-symmetric exchange is based on the tunneling-like behavior of conduction electrons through the semi-conductor-like ultrathin MgO. Such behavior can be correlated with the oscillations of the indirect exchange coupling of the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida type. From the theoretical demonstration, we could provide approximate estimation and show qualitative trends peculiar to the system under investigation.