Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: The ability to engineer the interactions in assemblies of nanoscale magnets is central to the development of artificial spin systems and spintronic technologies. Following the emergence of the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI) in thin film magnetism, new routes have been opened to couple the nanomagnets via strong chiral interactions, which is complementary to the established dipolar and exchange coupling mechanisms. In this Perspective, we review recent progress in the engineering of synthetic magnets coupled by the interlayer and intralayer DMI. We show how multilayer chiral magnetic structures and two-dimensional synthetic antiferromagnets, skyrmions, and artificial spin systems can be realized by simultaneous control of the DMI and magnetic anisotropy. In addition, we show that, with the combination of DMI and current-induced spin–orbit torques, field-free switching of synthetic magnetic elements is obtained as well as all-electric domain wall logic circuits.
Source: Applied Physics Letters
DOI: 10.1063/5.0021184
Institutions: Paul Scherrer Institute, ETH Zurich
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W3090189677