Perspectives article published on synthetic chiral magnets
Our discovery of the chiral coupling in magnetic thin films, which was part of a collaboration between the Laboratory for Mesoscopic Systems (PSI-ETH Zurich) and the Laboratory for Magnetism and Interface Physics (ETH Zurich), led to the realization of synthetic lateral chiral textures. These can be embedded into spintronics devices to realize all-electric domain wall logic circuits. We have recently discussed this area of research in an article highlighting the perspectives of this developing field.
The types of magnetic couplings in lateral magnetic structures has until recently been limited to the exchange and dipolar interaction. The discovery of the novel chiral coupling mechanism in nanostructures with tailored magnetic anisotropy and sizeable Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction enabled the realization of new synthetic lateral magnetic textures and devices. Perhaps the most prominent example is the all-electric logic, which opens up the possibility to realize in-memory computation. We have reviewed the recent progress in this newborn field and provided our perspective on the future developments. We include the possible techniques and materials that can be used to achieve similar effects as well as a number of potential applications in various domains of magnetism.
Original Publication:
Synthetic chiral magnets promoted by the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction
A. Hrabec, Z. Luo, L. J. Heyderman, P. Gambardella
external pageApplied Physics Letters 117 (13), 130503 (2020)