Novel chiral magnetic domain wall structure in Fe/Ni/Cu(001) films

Using spin-polarized low energy electron microscopy, we discovered a new type of domain wall structure in perpendicularly magnetized Fe/Ni bilayers grown epitaxially on Cu(100). Specifically, we observed unexpected Néel-type walls with fixed chirality in the magnetic stripe phase. Furthermore, we fi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2013-04, Vol.110 (17), p.177204-177204, Article 177204
Main Authors: Chen, G, Zhu, J, Quesada, A, Li, J, N'Diaye, A T, Huo, Y, Ma, T P, Chen, Y, Kwon, H Y, Won, C, Qiu, Z Q, Schmid, A K, Wu, Y Z
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Using spin-polarized low energy electron microscopy, we discovered a new type of domain wall structure in perpendicularly magnetized Fe/Ni bilayers grown epitaxially on Cu(100). Specifically, we observed unexpected Néel-type walls with fixed chirality in the magnetic stripe phase. Furthermore, we find that the chirality of the domain walls is determined by the film growth order with the chirality being right handed in Fe/Ni bilayers and left handed in Ni/Fe bilayers, suggesting that the underlying mechanism is the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction at the film interfaces. Our observations may open a new route to control chiral spin structures using interfacial engineering in transition metal heterostructures.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.177204