Stiffness in vortex-like structures due to chirality-domains within a coupled helical rare-earth superlattice.
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ABSTRACT: Vortex domain walls poses chirality or 'handedness' which can be exploited to act as memory units by changing their polarity with electric field or driving/manupulating the vortex itself by electric currents in multiferroics. Recently, domain walls formed by one dimensional array of vortex-like structures have been theoretically predicted to exist in disordered rare-earth helical magnets with topological defects. Here, in this report, we have used a combination of two rare-earth metals, e.g. superlattice that leads to long range magnetic order despite their competing anisotropies along the out-of-plane (Er) and in-plane (Tb) directions. Probing the vertically correlated magnetic structures by off-specular polarized neutron scattering we confirm the existence of such magnetic vortex-like domains associated with magnetic helical ordering within the Er layers. The vortex-like structures are predicted to have opposite chirality, side-by-side, and are fairly unaffected by the introduction of magnetic ordering between the interfacial Tb layers and also with the increase in magnetic field which is a direct consequence of screening of the vorticity in the system due to a helical background. Overall, the stability of these vortices over a wide range of temperatures, fields and interfacial coupling, opens up the opportunity for fundamental chiral spintronics in unconventional systems.
SUBMITTER: Paul A
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4725934 | biostudies-other | 2016
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
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