Chirality-dependent transmission of spin waves through domain walls

Abstract

Spin-wave technology (magnonics) has the potential to further reduce the size and energy consumption of information processing devices. In the submicrometer regime (exchange spin waves), topological defects such as domain walls may constitute active elements to manipulate spin waves and perform logic operations. We predict that spin waves that pass through a domain wall in an ultrathin perpendicular-anisotropy film experience a phase shift that depends on the orientation of the domain wall (chirality). The effect, which is absent in bulk materials, originates from the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and can be interpreted as a geometric phase. We demonstrate analytically and by means of micromagnetic simulations that the phase shift is strong enough to switch between constructive and destructive interference. The two chirality states of the domain wall may serve as a memory bit or spin-wave switch in magnonic devices.

11 pages, 10 figures (incl. supp. mat.); Phys. Rev. Lett. (accepted)

References in corpus (3)

• Thickness dependence of the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in inversion symmetry broken systems
• Magnon-Driven Domain-Wall Motion with the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction
• Dirac electrons and domain walls: a realization in junctions of ferromagnets and topological insulators

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• A puzzling insensitivity of magnon spin diffusion to the presence of 180${}^{\circ }$ domain walls in a ferrimagnetic insulator
• Néel domain wall as a tunable filter for optically excited magnetostatic waves
• Engineering of Intrinsic Chiral Torques in Magnetic Thin Films Based on the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction
• Theory of magnon motive force in chiral ferromagnets
• Nonlinear effects in the propagation of optically generated magnetostatic volume mode spin waves
• Geometric phase and a nonreciprocal spin wave circular polarizer