Chiral magnetoresistance in Pt/Co/Pt zigzag wires

• Published in: Applied physics letters Vol. 110; no. 12
• Main Authors: Yin, Yuxiang, Han, Dong-Soo, Kim, June-Seo, Lavrijsen, Reinoud, Lee, Kyung-Jin, Lee, Seo-Won, Kim, Kyoung-Whan, Lee, Hyun-Woo, Swagten, Henk J. M., Koopmans, Bert
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Melville American Institute of Physics 20-03-2017
• Subjects: Applied physics; Chirality; Cobalt; Domain walls; Electron spin; Exchanging; Magnetic fields; Magnetoresistance; Magnetoresistivity; Quantitative analysis
• ISSN: 0003-6951; 1077-3118
• DOI: 10.1063/1.4979031

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.