Long-range chiral exchange interaction in synthetic antiferromagnets
Han DS, Lee K, Hanke JP, Mokrousov Y, Kim KW, Yoo W, Van Hees YLW, Kim TW, Lavrijsen R, You CY, Swagten HJM, Jung MH, Klaeui M (2019)
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2019
Journal
Book Volume: 18
Pages Range: 703-708
Journal Issue: 7
DOI: 10.1038/s41563-019-0370-z
Abstract
The exchange interaction governs static and dynamic magnetism. This fundamental interaction comes in two flavours—symmetric and antisymmetric. The symmetric interaction leads to ferro- and antiferromagnetism, and the antisymmetric interaction has attracted significant interest owing to its major role in promoting topologically non-trivial spin textures that promise fast, energy-efficient devices. So far, the antisymmetric exchange interaction has been found to be rather short ranged and limited to a single magnetic layer. Here we report a long-range antisymmetric interlayer exchange interaction in perpendicularly magnetized synthetic antiferromagnets with parallel and antiparallel magnetization alignments. Asymmetric hysteresis loops under an in-plane field reveal a unidirectional and chiral nature of this interaction, which results in canted magnetic structures. We explain our results by considering spin–orbit coupling combined with reduced symmetry in multilayers. Our discovery of a long-range chiral interaction provides an additional handle to engineer magnetic structures and could enable three-dimensional topological structures.
Involved external institutions
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (JGU)
Germany (DE)
Eindhoven University of Technology / Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e)
Netherlands (NL)
Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) / 한국과학기술연구원
Korea, Republic of (KR)
Sogang University
Korea, Republic of (KR)
Sejong University (SJU) / 세종대학교
Korea, Republic of (KR)
Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology
Korea, Republic of (KR)
Germany (DE)
Eindhoven University of Technology / Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e)
Netherlands (NL)
Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) / 한국과학기술연구원
Korea, Republic of (KR)
Sogang University
Korea, Republic of (KR)
Sejong University (SJU) / 세종대학교
Korea, Republic of (KR)
Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology
Korea, Republic of (KR)
How to cite
APA:
Han, D.-S., Lee, K., Hanke, J.-P., Mokrousov, Y., Kim, K.-W., Yoo, W.,... Klaeui, M. (2019). Long-range chiral exchange interaction in synthetic antiferromagnets. Nature Materials, 18(7), 703-708. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0370-z
MLA:
Han, Dong-Soo, et al. "Long-range chiral exchange interaction in synthetic antiferromagnets." Nature Materials 18.7 (2019): 703-708.
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