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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus

MA 24: Focus Session: Chiral domain walls in ultrathin films

MA 24.4: Topical Talk

Mittwoch, 2. April 2014, 11:15–11:45, BEY 118

Current-driven dynamics of chiral ferromagentic domain walls — •Geoffrey Beach — MIT Dept. of Mater. Sci. and Eng., Cambridge, MA, USA

In most ferromagnets the magnetization rotates from one domain to the next with no preferred handedness. However, broken inversion symmetry can lift the chiral degeneracy, leading to topologically rich spin textures such as spin-spirals and skyrmions via the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) [1-3]. Here we show that in ultrathin metallic ferromagnets sandwiched between a heavy metal and an oxide, the DMI stabilizes chiral domain walls (DWs) whose spin texture enables extremely efficient current-driven motion [4-6]. We show that spin torque from the spin Hall effect drives DWs in opposite directions in Pt/CoFe/MgO and Ta/CoFe/MgO, which can be explained only if the DWs assume a Néel configuration with left-handed chirality. We directly confirm the DW chirality and rigidity by examining current-driven DW dynamics with magnetic fields applied perpendicular and parallel to the spin spiral [4,6]. This work identifies the origin of efficient current-driven domain wall motion in heavy metal/ferromagnet bilayers, and highlights a new path towards interfacial design of spintronic devices. In collaboration with S. Emori, U. Bauer, and E. Martinez.

[1] M. Bode, et al., Nature 447, 190 (2007). [2] S. Heinze, et al., Nature Physics 7, 713 (2011). [3] A. Thiaville, et al., Europhys. Lett. 100, 57002 (2012). [4] S. Emori, et al., Nature Mater. 12, 611 (2013). [5] E. Martinez, et al., APL 103, 072406 (2013). [6] S. Emori, et al., arXiv:1308.1432 (2013).