Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction in Magnetic Domain Wall Dynamics

The Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI) arises from spin–orbit coupling in systems lacking inversion symmetry and promotes chiral spin textures by favouring a fixed rotational sense between neighbouring moments. In ultrathin ferromagnetic films and multilayers adjacent to heavy metals, interfacial DMI stabilises homochiral Néel domain walls and underpins the formation of magnetic skyrmions. The strength and sign of the DMI determine whether a domain wall adopts a left- or right-handed configuration, which in turn governs its response to spin-orbit torques, magnetic fields and current-induced forces. Chiral domain walls exhibit unidirectional motion, reduced depinning thresholds and unique inertia effects that are critical for next-generation spintronic devices such as racetrack memories and bubblecade arrays. Control of DMI through interface engineering, annealing procedures or work-function matching enables tailoring of domain-wall velocity, stability and topological robustness, offering routes to energy-efficient magnetic information technologies.

Research from Nature Portfolio

High-resolution magnetic microscopy based on a single nitrogen-vacancy centre has directly imaged the internal structure of domain walls in ultrathin ferromagnets under ambient conditions, revealing pure Bloch walls in some stacks and pronounced left-handed Néel walls in others, thereby confirming the role of interfacial DMI in setting wall chirality. Lorentz transmission electron and Kerr microscopies have uncovered robust homochiral Néel walls in Pt/Co/AlOx trilayers, showing that independently nucleated walls share a fixed topological winding number that can only be annihilated by large external fields, a manifestation of the DMI-enforced topological stability. Studies of current-driven chiral Néel walls in low-damping systems have demonstrated markedly different acceleration and deceleration times: while spin Hall torques rapidly accelerate a wall, its deceleration is governed by the DMI exchange constant, revealing a tunable inertia that may be exploited for precision positioning with reduced current pulses.

Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction in Magnetic Domain Wall Dynamics publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in dzyaloshinskii-moriya interaction in magnetic domain wall dynamics across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI): an antisymmetric exchange mechanism arising from strong spin–orbit coupling in non-centrosymmetric environments that favours chiral alignment of neighbouring spins.

Domain wall (DW): the transition region between two magnetic domains where the magnetisation rotates continuously, classified as Bloch or Néel walls according to its rotation plane.

Spin-orbit torque (SOT): torque exerted on the magnetisation by spin currents generated via spin–orbit coupling in adjacent heavy metals, enabling efficient current-induced domain-wall motion.

Chirality: the handedness of a magnetic structure, such as a Néel wall or skyrmion, determined by the sign of the DMI and essential for unidirectional wall propagation.

References

1. Measuring and tailoring the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in perpendicularly magnetized thin films. Physical Review B (2014).
2. The nature of domain walls in ultrathin ferromagnets revealed by scanning nanomagnetometry. Nature Communications (2015).
3. Magnetic microscopy and topological stability of homochiral Néel domain walls in a Pt/Co/AlOx trilayer. Nature Communications (2015).
4. Tunable inertia of chiral magnetic domain walls. Nature Communications (2016).
5. Experimental observation of the correlation between the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction and work function in metallic magnetic trilayers. NPG Asia Materials (2018).
6. Chirality-induced antisymmetry in magnetic domain wall speed. NPG Asia Materials (2018).