Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interactions in Magnetic Thin Films

The Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI) is an antisymmetric exchange coupling that emerges in magnetic thin films when inversion symmetry is broken at interfaces with heavy metals. Owing to strong spin–orbit coupling, DMI favours chiral alignment of neighbouring spins, stabilising noncollinear textures such as Néel domain walls and magnetic skyrmions. In ultrathin ferromagnetic layers, the interfacial DMI strength depends inversely on the ferromagnet thickness and sensitively on the atomic-scale structure of the boundary. This chiral exchange gives rise to nonreciprocal spin-wave propagation, enabling unidirectional magnon transport and asymmetric dispersion relations. Control of DMI is key to next-generation spintronic and magnonic devices, promising low-power information processing, high-speed racetrack memories and robust logic elements. Recent developments show that thermal treatments, insertion of spacer layers and modulation of interface roughness can tune both the magnitude and sign of the DMI, offering routes to engineer bespoke chiral magnetic phenomena in multilayer stacks.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Brillouin light scattering measurements on Au/CoFeB/Au trilayers with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy have revealed nonreciprocal spin-wave dispersion indicative of a sizeable interfacial DMI, while concomitantly exhibiting low damping and strong anisotropy, making these films attractive for magnonic applications. Thermal annealing of symmetrical Py/Pt multilayer stacks has been shown to induce DMI by interdiffusion-driven crystallinity changes and increased interface disorder, demonstrating a novel route to tune antisymmetric exchange in structures that nominally preserve inversion symmetry. Foundational work in hybrid heavy-metal/ferromagnet heterostructures established that the DMI energy density scales inversely with ferromagnet thickness and can be quantified by systematic Brillouin light scattering, firmly linking experimental dispersion asymmetry to interfacial spin–orbit coupling and establishing a benchmark for subsequent studies.

Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interactions in Magnetic Thin Films publication trend

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

Technical terms

Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI): An antisymmetric exchange coupling that favours canted spin alignment in systems with strong spin–orbit coupling and broken inversion symmetry.

Spin–orbit coupling: An interaction between an electron’s spin and its orbital motion around the nucleus, crucial for generating DMI at heavy-metal interfaces.

Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA): A magnetic energy term favouring magnetisation alignment perpendicular to the film plane, often enhanced by interfacial effects.

Nonreciprocity: The property of spin waves to propagate differently in opposite directions, often induced by DMI.

Brillouin light scattering (BLS): An optical spectroscopy technique for measuring spin-wave frequencies and wave-vector–dependent dispersion in magnetic films.

Néel domain wall: A boundary between magnetic domains in which the magnetisation rotates within the plane of the wall, stabilised by interfacial DMI.

Skyrmion: A topologically protected, nanoscale spin texture with a swirling, chiral configuration, stabilised by DMI in thin films.

References

1. Nonreciprocal spin wave channeling in ferromagnetic/heavy-metal nanostrips. Results in Physics (2024).
2. Spin Waves in Ferromagnetic Nanorings with Interfacial Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya Interactions: II. Directional Effects. Nanomaterials (2024).
3. Investigation of spin wave dynamics in Au/CoFeB/Au multilayers with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Scientific Reports (2023).
4. Thickness dependence of the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction in inversion symmetry broken systems. Nature Communications (2015).
5. Enhancement of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction in thin ferromagnetic films by atomic-scale modulation of interfaces. NPG Asia Materials (2020).
6. Spatial extent of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction at metallic interfaces. Physical Review Materials (2022).
7. Inducing Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction in symmetrical multilayers using post annealing. Scientific Reports (2022).