Magnetic microscopy and topological stability of homochiral Neel domain walls in a Pt/Co/AlOx trilayer.

ABSTRACT: The microscopic magnetization variation in magnetic domain walls in thin films is a crucial property when considering the torques driving their dynamic behaviour. For films possessing out-of-plane anisotropy normally the presence of Néel walls is not favoured due to magnetostatic considerations. However, they have the right structure to respond to the torques exerted by the spin Hall effect. Their existence is an indicator of the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI). Here we present direct imaging of Néel domain walls with a fixed chirality in device-ready Pt/Co/AlOx films using Lorentz transmission electron and Kerr microscopies. It is shown that any independently nucleated pair of walls in our films form winding pairs when they meet that are difficult to annihilate with fi

SUBMITTER: Benitez MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4686874 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature