Anisotropic Interlayer Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya Interaction in Synthetic Ferromagnetic/Antiferromagnetic Sandwiches

Abstract

Abstract The interfacial Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI) in ferromagnetic/non‐magnetic‐metal bilayers is essential to stabilize chiral spin textures for potential applications. Recent works reveal that the interlayer DMI is beneficial to designing 3D chiral spin textures that possess fundamental importance and the associated technological promises. Here, the interlayer DM constants are determined quantitatively in synthetic ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic Pt/Co/Pt/Ru/Pt/Co/Ta structures. The results demonstrate that the interlayer DMI shows uniaxial anisotropic characteristics. The first‐principles calculations elucidate that the anisotropic interlayer DMI is induced by the in‐plane symmetry breaking along two high symmetric directions, which favors the magnetization of adjacent ferromagnetic layers canting in different directions. The anisotropic interlayer DMI is also confirmed by spin‐orbit torque driven asymmetric magnetization switching. Moreover, the interlayer DMI can be tuned by the Ru‐layer‐thickness and beneficial to designing 3D spin textures for future spintronic devices.