Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction and Its Current-Induced Manipulation

The Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) plays a crucial role in the design of advanced spintronic devices. It stabilizes the chirality of domain walls, thereby enabling racetrack type storage devices and allows for the stabilization of topologically non-trivial magnetic textures, such as skyrmions. These textures have various potential applications, including memory and neuromorphic computing. DMI occurs in systems with broken inversion symmetry, which can take on different forms. One form is the bulk DMI, which is usually determined by the intrinsic crystal structure, but a composition gradient may also induce this type of DMI. In thin films, the interfacial DMI is the common way of introducing DMI into a variety of systems. More recently, also a DMI between distinct magnetic layers, known as the interlayer DMI has been introduced. However, the DMI is not only a static material property. In the focus of this review is the potential to manipulate the DMI by electrical fields and currents, which opens up design routes for new devices based on the ability for post-growth control for the DMI sign and strength of DMI. The effects of currents and fields are laid out both from a theory perspective as well as by reporting the key experiments.

Automated summary

The Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) is crucial in the design of advanced spintronic devices, enabling the stabilization of domain walls and topologically non-trivial magnetic textures. This review focuses on the potential to manipulate DMI through electrical fields and currents, offering post-growth control over the sign and strength of DMI. The effects of currents and fields are discussed from both a theoretical and experimental perspective.