Nonvolatile Ionic Modification of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction

Abstract

The Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction (DMI) is a key ingredient for the observation of skyrmions and N\'eel domain walls in films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. The dynamic control of DMI is, therefore, of great interest for developing chirality-dependent spintronics. This study demonstrates the nonvolatile modification of DMI and magnetic anisotropy through electric-field-induced ionic migration in Pt/Co/HfO${}_{2}$/liquid-gate structures. As the ionic liquid gate can be removed after applying the electric field, this is not only a step toward ionic control of DMI in devices, but also a simple post-growth method for materials processing.