Mariëlle Meijer: Controlling the magnetic chirality in multilayer systems

Chiral magnetism, wherein there is a preferred sense of rotation of the magnetization, has become a key aspect for future spintronic applications. It determines the chiral nature of magnetic textures, such as skyrmions, domain walls or spin spirals, and a specific magnetic chirality is often required for spintronic applications. Current research focuses on identifying and controlling the interactions that define the magnetic chirality.

In this presentation we will discuss three interactions that play a role in controlling the magnetic chirality in a multilayered system, namely the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (iDMI), the dipolar interaction and the interlayer exchange interaction. The strength of these interactions and the resulting rotation of the magnetization is determined from scanning electron microscopy with polarization analysis (SEMPA) measurements in combination with micromagnetic simulations. Varying the thickness of the (non-) magnetic layers in the multilayer system allows us to tune these interactions and thereby control the magnetic chirality for spintronic applications.