Engineering Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in B20 thin film chiral magnets

Abstract

Chiral magnetic Mn${}_x$Fe${}_{1-x}$Ge compounds have an antisymmetric exchange interaction that is tunable with the manganese stoichiometric fraction, $x$. Although millimeter-scale, polycrystalline bulk samples of this family of compounds have been produced, thin-film versions of these materials will be necessary for devices. In this study, we demonstrate the growth of epitaxial Mn${}_x$Fe${}_{1-x}$Ge thin films on Si (111) substrates with a pure B20 crystal structure in the stoichiometric fraction range x from 0 to 0.81. Following systematic physical and magnetic characterization including microwave absorption spectroscopy, we quantify the antisymmetric exchange interaction and helical period as a function of $x$, which ranges from 200 nm to 8 nm. Our results demonstrate an approach to engineering the size of magnetic skyrmions in epitaxial films that are grown using scalable techniques.

arXiv comment21 pages including supporting materials, 9 figures total

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Cited by in corpus (10)

• Ab initio analysis of magnetic properties of prototype B20 chiral magnet FeGe
• Stabilization mechanisms of magnetic skyrmion crystal and multiple-$Q$ states based on momentum-resolved spin interactions
• Formation of Néel Type Skyrmions in an Antidot Lattice with Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy
• Self focusing Hybrid Skyrmions in spatially varying canted ferromagnetic systems
• Tunable Magnetic Skyrmions in Ferrimagnetic Mn${}_4$N
• Tuneable terahertz oscillation arising from Bloch-point dynamics in chiral magnets
• Complex magnetism of B20-MnGe: from spin-spirals, hedgehogs to monopoles
• Hopfion Dynamics in Chiral Magnets
• Surface Structures of Epitaxial B20 FeGe(-1-1-1) Thin Films via Scanning Tunneling Microscopy
• General spin models from noncollinear spin density functional theory and spin-cluster expansion