Regensburg 2013 – scientific programme

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DS: Fachverband Dünne Schichten

DS 22: Gaede Prize Talk - Kirsten von Bergmann

DS 22.1: Prize Talk

Wednesday, March 13, 2013, 13:15–13:55, H15

Complex magnetic order on the atomic scale — •Kirsten von Bergmann — Institute of Applied Physics, University of Hamburg

Magnetism in low-dimensions is a versatile topic and broken inversion symmetry due to the presence of a surface can induce the formation of complex magnetic order. Here the driving force for the canting of adjacent magnetic moments is the spin-orbit induced Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. Thin magnetic films on heavy substrates are good candidates for this kind of surface-induced non-collinear magnetic states with unique rotational sense.

Spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy (SP-STM) combines magnetic sensitivity with high lateral resolution and therefore grants access to such complex magnetic order with unit cells on the nanometer scale. Several non-collinear magnetic ground states, such as spin spirals where the spin rotates from one atom to the next, habe been observed [1-3]; while in uniaxial systems only one propagation direction is found, in biaxial systems rotational domains of spin spirals are present. In the case of the monolayer Fe on Ir(111) a combination of different magnetic interactions, including higher-order interactions, leads to a two-dimensional lattice of magnetic skyrmions on the atomic scale [4,5].

[1] M. Bode et al., Nature 447, 190 (2007).

[2] P. Ferriani et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 27201 (2008).

[3] M. Menzel et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 197204 (2012).

[4] K. von Bergmann et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 167203 (2006).

[5] S. Heinze et al., Nature Phys. 7, 713 (2011).