Manipulation of the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya Interaction in Co/Pt Multilayers with Strain

Abstract

Interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) is experimentally investigated in Pt/Co/Pt multilayer films under strain. A strong variation (from 0.1 to 0.8 mJ/m^{2}) of the DMI constant is demonstrated at ±0.1% in-plane uniaxial deformation of the films. The anisotropic strain induces strong DMI anisotropy. The DMI constant perpendicular to the strain direction changes sign, while the constant along the strain direction does not. Estimates show that the DMI can be controlled with an electric field in hybrid ferroelectric-ferromagnetic systems. So, the observed effect opens the way to control the DMI and eventually skyrmions with a voltage via a strain-mediated magnetoelectric coupling.