New Paper Online: Modification of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya-Interaction-Stabilized Domain Wall Chirality by Driving Currents

Modification of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya-Interaction-Stabilized Domain Wall Chirality by Driving Currents

G. V. Karnad, F. Freimuth, E. Martinez, R. Lo Conte, G. Gubbiotti, T. Schulz, S. Senz, B. Ocker, Y. Mokrousov, and M. Kläui

Physical Review Letters 121, 147203 (2018)

We measure and analyze the chirality of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya-interaction (DMI) stabilized spin textures in multilayers of $\mathrm{Ta/}{\mathrm{Co}}_{20}{F}_{60}{B}_{\mathrm{20/}}\mathrm{MgO}$. The effective DMI is measured experimentally using domain wall motion measurements, both in the presence (using spin-orbit torques) and absence of driving currents (using magnetic fields). We observe that the current-induced domain wall motion yields a change in effective DMI magnitude and opposite domain wall chirality when compared to field-induced domain wall motion (without current). We explore this effect, which we refer to as current-induced DMI, by providing possible explanations for its emergence, and explore the possibility of its manifestation in the framework of recent theoretical predictions of DMI modifications due to spin currents.