Chiral Damping Research Articles

Intrinsic asymmetry in chiral domain walls due to the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction

We present an analytical description of the energy density of chiral magnetic domain walls (DWs) that considers variations in DW width. Surprisingly, under the application of a longitudinal in-plane magnetic field, the DW width varies abnormally, resulting in an asymmetric variation of the DW energy density. Such asymmetry is attributable to the nonlinear contribution to the effective magnetic field from the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction. The formation of such asymmetric DWs is confirmed by a micromagnetic simulation. The present prediction proposes a possible origin of the experimental asymmetry related to chiral damping.

Chiral damping of magnetic domain walls.

Structural symmetry breaking in magnetic materials is responsible for the existence of multiferroics, current-induced spin-orbit torques and some topological magnetic structures. In this Letter we report that the structural inversion asymmetry (SIA) gives rise to a chiral damping mechanism, which is evidenced by measuring the field-driven domain-wall (DW) motion in perpendicularly magnetized asymmetric Pt/Co/Pt trilayers. The DW dynamics associated with the chiral damping and those with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) exhibit identical spatial symmetry. However, both scenarios are differentiated by their time reversal properties: whereas DMI is a conservative effect that can be modelled by an effective field, the chiral damping is purely dissipative and has no influence on the equilibrium magnetic texture. When the DW motion is modulated by an in-plane magnetic field, it reveals the structure of the internal fields experienced by the DWs, allowing one to distinguish the physical mechanism. The chiral damping enriches the spectrum of physical phenomena engendered by the SIA, and is essential for conceiving DW and skyrmion devices owing to its coexistence with DMI(ref.).