Abstract

Antiskyrmions and other unconventional topological excitations can potentially be supported by low-symmetry ferromagnet--heavy metal (FM-HM) thin films by the Dresselhaus-type anisotropic Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (aDMI) arising at the FM-HM interfaces. This work presents the potential of C2V Ag/Pt/Co-based films to exhibit aDMI and stabilize new chiral magnetic textures. X-ray diffraction 2θ-ω scans of Ag/Pt/Co/Pt films grown epitaxially on Si(110) single crystal substrates show that Co grows predominantly with (10.0) hexagonal closed-packed (hcp) orientation, deviating from the (110)-oriented face-centered cubic (fcc) structure of Ag and Pt. These findings were corroborated by selected area electron diffraction patterns and further supported by a strong in-plane uniaxial anisotropy measured along the hcp c-axis by alternating gradient field magnetometry. Crosstie domain walls in these films were directly observed by Lorentz transmission electron microscopy, which are also predicted from micromagnetic simulations. The materials system introduced above creates the previously unexplored situation where an in-plane easy axis is coupled with a strong (potentially anisotropic) DMI, which may lead to interesting spin configurations. However, to break the z-mirror plane [v1] and create a non-zero DMI, we fabricate thinner Ag/Pt/[Co/Ni]x/Pt films. X-ray diffraction analysis suggest that the hcp structure is preserved throughout the Ni layers. Structural and magnetic observations of this lower symmetry film stack are compared to micromagnetic simulations and discussed in the context of C2V films potentially exhibiting Dresselhaus-type aDMI and hosting antiskyrmions.

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