Short-period oscillations in the interlayer magnetic coupling of wedged Fe(100)/Mo(100)/Fe(100) grown on Mo(100) by molecular-beam epitaxy

Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida-Type Interlayer Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction in Synthetic Magnets

Conduction electron spins interacting with magnetic impurity spins can mediate an interlayer exchange interaction, namely, the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interaction. This discovery opened the way to significant technological developments in the field of magnetic storage and spintronics. So far, the RKKY-type interlayer interaction has been found to construct symmetric coupling of magnetism; however, the asymmetric counterpart remains unexplored. Here we report unprecedented RKKY-type interlayer Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) in synthetic magnets, exhibiting a damped oscillatory feature. This asymmetric interlayer interaction is found to be dramatically dependent on the intermediate coupling layer. By introducing the Fert-Lévy model to the trilayer system, we reveal that the in-plane inversion symmetry breaking plays a pivotal role for generating interlayer DMI and the RKKY oscillation is an intrinsic behavior in metallic multilayers. Our finding fills up the empty block for RKKY-type asymmetric interlayer exchange coupling in comparison to the well-known (symmetric) RKKY-type interlayer exchange coupling.

Chiral Coupling between Magnetic Layers with Orthogonal Magnetization

We report on the occurrence of strong interlayer Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) between an in-plane magnetized Co layer and a perpendicularly magnetized TbFe layer through a Pt spacer. The DMI causes a chiral coupling that favors one-handed orthogonal magnetic configurations of Co and TbFe, which we reveal through Hall effect and magnetoresistance measurements. The DMI coupling mediated by Pt causes effective magnetic fields on either layer of up to 10-15 mT, which decrease monotonically with increasing Pt thickness. Ru, Ta, and Ti spacers mediate a significantly smaller coupling compared to Pt, highlighting the essential role of Pt in inducing the interlayer DMI. These results are relevant to understand and maximize the interlayer coupling induced by the DMI as well as to design spintronic devices with chiral spin textures.

Interlayer Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interactions

The interfacial Dzyaloshinkii-Moriya interaction defines a rotational sense for the spin structure in two-dimensional magnetic films and can be used to create chiral magnetic structures like spin spirals and skyrmions in those films. Here, we show by means of atomistic calculations that in heterostructures an interlayer coupling of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya type across a spacer can emerge. We quantify this interaction in the framework of the Lévy-Fert model for trilayers consisting of two ferromagnets separated by a nonmagnetic spacer and show that such an interlayer Dzyaloshinkii-Moriya interaction yields nontrivial three-dimensional spin textures across the entire trilayer, which evolve within as well as between the planes and, hence, combine intraplane and interplane chiralities. This analysis opens new perspectives for three-dimensional tailoring of magnetic chirality in multilayers.

Spectroscopic study of Gd nanostructures quantum confined in Fe corrals

Low dimensional nanostructures have attracted attention due to their rich physical properties and potential applications. The essential factor for their functionality is their electronic properties, which can be modified by quantum confinement. Here the electronic states of Gd atom trapped in open Fe corrals on Ag(111) were studied via scanning tunneling spectroscopy. A single spectroscopic peak above the Fermi level is observed after Gd adatoms are trapped inside Fe corrals, while two peaks appear in empty corrals. The single peak position is close to the higher energy peak of the empty corrals. These findings, attributed to quantum confinement of the corrals and Gd structures trapped inside, are supported by tight-binding calculations. This demonstrates and provides insights into atom trapping in open corrals of various diameters, giving an alternative approach to modify the properties of nano-objects.

Oscillatory magnetic anisotropy originating from quantum well states in Fe films

The magnetic anisotropy of Fe film grown on vicinal Ag(1,1,10) surfaces was studied with the in situ magneto-optic Kerr effect. Below 200 K, strong oscillations of the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy as a function of Fe thickness with a period of 5.7 monolayers are found, which can even cause the easy magnetization axis to oscillate between perpendicular and parallel to the steps. Such novel oscillation of the anisotropy is attributed to the quantum well states of d-band electrons at the Fermi level in the Fe film. This is unlike the previously observed oscillatory behaviors of ferromagnetic films caused by the quantum well states in nonmagnetic interfacing layers.

Novel Oscillation Period of the Interlayer Exchange Coupling in Fe/Cr/Fe Due to MgO Capping

A novel period of the interlayer exchange coupling as a function of Cr thickness is observed in epitaxial Fe/Cr/Fe (001) sandwiches capped with MgO. This additional period, equal to 3 chromium atomic layers, vanishes when the capping is Cr. A strong oscillation of the magnetic coupling is also observed as a function of the thickness of the Fe layer next to the MgO capping layer. This effect is attributed to the formation of quantum well states in this Fe layer. It is believed that this confinement modifies the reflection coefficient at the Cr/Fe interface for electrons of a particular symmetry and leads to the new coupling period which is linked to the Fermi surface topology of chromium.