Thin film quantum materials

Abstract:

We studied the magnetodynamics of ferromagnetic films coupling across a topological insulator (TI) Bi2Se3 layer using ferromagnetic resonance (FMR). TIs have attracted much attention across the physics community as they hold the potential for dissipationless carrier transport, extremely high spin-orbit torques, and are host to novel quantum effects. To investigate the coupling between the ferromagnetic (FM) layers, vector network analyzer (VNA)-FMR measurements of the resonance linewidth were performed as a function of bias field angle. By bringing the resonances of the two FM layers into close proximity, it was possible to observe antidamping torques that lead to a narrowing of linewidth, a characteristic of spin pumping. The element- and hence layer-specific technique of x-ray detected ferromagnetic resonance (XFMR) was used to circumvent the difficulty of obtaining accurate fits to the two overlapping resonances in close proximity. Our results confirm that the interaction across the TI is a dynamic exchange mediated by spin pumping, as opposed to a self-coupling of the surface state or similar, more unconventional mechanisms.

Abstract:

Understanding the role of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) for the formation of helimagnetic order, as well as the emergence of skyrmions in magnetic systems that lack inversion symmetry, has found increasing interest due to the significant potential for novel spin based technologies. Candidate materials to host skyrmions include those belonging to the B20 group such as FeGe, known for stabilising Bloch-like skyrmions, interfacial systems such as cobalt multilayers or Pd/Fe bilayers on top of Ir(111), known for stabilising N´eel-like skyrmions, and, recently, alloys with a crystallographic symmetry where anti-skyrmions are stabilised. Micromagnetic simulations have become a standard approach to aid the design and optimisation of spintronic and magnetic nanodevices and are also applied to the modelling of device applications which make use of skyrmions. Several public domain micromagnetic simulation packages such as OOMMF, MuMax3 and Fidimag already offer implementations of different DMI terms. It is therefore highly desirable to propose a so-called micromagnetic standard problem that would allow one to benchmark and test the different software packages in a similar way as is done for ferromagnetic materials without DMI. Here, we provide a sequence of well-defined and increasingly complex computational problems for magnetic materials with DMI. Our test problems include 1D, 2D and 3D domains, spin wave dynamics in the presence of DMI, and validation of the analytical and numerical solutions including uniform magnetisation, edge tilting, spin waves and skyrmion formation. This set of problems can be used by developers and users of new micromagnetic simulation codes for testing and validation and hence establishing scientific credibility.