Chiral magnetoresistance in Pt/Co/Pt zigzag wires

Yuxiang Yin, Dong Soo Han, June Seo Kim, Reinoud Lavrijsen, Kyung Jin Lee, Seo Won Lee, Kyoung Whan Kim, Hyun Woo Lee, Henk J.M. Swagten, Bert Koopmans

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    15 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The Rashba effect leads to a chiral precession of the spins of moving electrons, while the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) generates preference towards a chiral profile of local spins. We predict that the exchange interaction between these two spin systems results in a “chiral” magnetoresistance depending on the chirality of the local spin texture. We observe this magnetoresistance by measuring the domain wall (DW) resistance in a uniquely designed Pt/Co/Pt zigzag wire and by changing the chirality of the DW with applying an in-plane magnetic field. A chirality-dependent DW resistance is found, and a quantitative analysis shows a good agreement with a theory based on the Rashba model. Moreover, the DW resistance measurement allows us to independently determine the strength of the Rashba effect and the DMI simultaneously, and the result implies a possible correlation between the Rashba effect, the DMI, and the symmetric Heisenberg exchange.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number122401
    JournalApplied Physics Letters
    Volume110
    Issue number12
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2017 Mar 20

    Bibliographical note

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2017 Author(s).

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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