Tailoring magnetic interactions in atomic bilayers of Rh and Fe on Re(0001)

Abstract

Using density functional theory, we investigate the interplay between the stacking order and sequence of bilayers composed of an Fe and a Rh layer on the Re(0001) and their magnetic properties. We find that fcc/ffc stacked bilayers are energetically very unfavorable, while all other combinations of hcp and fcc stacking are energetically close. The magnetic interactions are evaluated by mapping the DFT total energies onto a spin model, which contains Heisenberg exchange, Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, the magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy, and higher-order exchange interactions. We find that the stacking sequence of the bilayer significantly modifies the magnetic interactions. As a result, we find a DMI driven cycloidal spin spiral ground state with a period of 11~nm for hcp-Fe/hcp-Rh. For fcc-Fe/hcp-Rh and hcp-Fe/fcc-Rh, we obtain a ferromagnetic ground state. The spin spiral energy dispersion of hcp-Fe/hcp-Rh including spin-orbit coupling suggests that isolated skyrmions can be stabilized in the field-polarized ferromagnetic background at external magnetic fields. If the Fe layer is sandwiched between the Rh overlayer and the Re(0001) substrate, there is a competition between the ferromagnetic coupling preferred by the Rh-Fe hybridization and the antiferromagnetic coupling induced by the Fe-Re hybridization. Due to the Fe/Re interface the DMI can become very large. For fcc-Rh/hcp-Fe, we obtain a cycloidal spin spiral with a period of 1.7~nm which is induced by frustration of exchange interactions and further stabilized by the DMI. For hcp-Rh/hcp-Fe, we find a DMI driven cycloidal spin spiral with a period of 4~nm and locally nearly antiparallel magnetic moments due to antiferromagnetic nearest-neighbor exchange. The higher-order exchange constants can be significant in the considered films, however, they do not stabilize multi-$Q$ states.