Significant dzyaloshinskii–moriya interaction at graphene–ferromagnet interfaces due to the rashba effect

ABSTRACT The possibility of utilizing the rich spin-dependent properties of graphene has attracted much attention in the pursuit of spintronics advances. The promise of high-speed and

low-energy-consumption devices motivates the search for layered structures that stabilize chiral spin textures such as topologically protected skyrmions. Here we demonstrate that chiral spin

textures are induced at graphene/ferromagnetic metal interfaces. Graphene is a weak spin–orbit coupling material and is generally not expected to induce a sufficient Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya

interaction to affect magnetic chirality. We demonstrate that indeed graphene does induce a type of Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction due to the Rashba effect. First-principles calculations

and experiments using spin-polarized electron microscopy show that this graphene-induced Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction can have a similar magnitude to that at interfaces with heavy

metals. This work paves a path towards two-dimensional-material-based spin–orbitronics. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription content, access via

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subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS LARGE EXCHANGE SPLITTING IN MONOLAYER GRAPHENE MAGNETIZED BY AN ANTIFERROMAGNET Article 10

August 2020 EMBEDDING ATOMIC COBALT INTO GRAPHENE LATTICES TO ACTIVATE ROOM-TEMPERATURE FERROMAGNETISM Article Open access 25 March 2021 SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SPIN CANTING IN

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Download references ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement no. 696656 (GRAPHENE FLAGSHIP),

the ANR ULTRASKY, SOSPIN. Ab initio calculations used the resources of GENCI-CINES with grant no. C2016097605. Work at the Molecular Foundry was supported by the Office of Science, Office

of Basic Energy Sciences, of the US Department of Energy under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231. Work at UCD was supported by the UC Office of the President Multicampus Research Programs and

Initiatives MRP-17-454963 (G.C.) and NSF DMR-1610060 (K.L.). A.A.C.C., W.A.A.M. and E.A.S. acknowledge the support of the Brazilian agencies CAPES, CNPq and FAPEMIG. H.Y. would like also to

acknowledge the 1000 Talents Program for Young Scientists of China and Ningbo 3315 Program. We thank V. Cros, O. Boulle, G. Gaudin, I. M. Miron, T. P. Ma and A. Thiaville for fruitful

discussions and comments. AUTHOR INFORMATION Author notes * Alexandre A. C. Cotta Present address: Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Lavras, Lavras, Brazil * These authors

contributed equally: Hongxin Yang, Gong Chen. AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CEA, CNRS, Grenoble INP, INAC-SPINTEC, Grenoble, France Hongxin Yang, Sergey A. Nikolaev & 

Mairbek Chshiev * Unité Mixte de Physique, CNRS, Thales, Univ. Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, Palaiseau, France Hongxin Yang & Albert Fert * Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and

Devices, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, China Hongxin Yang * NCEM, Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,

Berkeley, CA, USA Gong Chen, Alexandre A. C. Cotta, Alpha T. N’Diaye & Andreas K. Schmid * Department of Physics, University of California, Davis, CA, USA Gong Chen & Kai Liu *

Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear, CDTN, Belo Horizonte, Brazil Alexandre A. C. Cotta & Waldemar A. A. Macedo * Departamento de Física, ICEx, Universidade Federal de Minas

Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil Alexandre A. C. Cotta & Edmar A. Soares Authors * Hongxin Yang View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Gong

Chen View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Alexandre A. C. Cotta View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google

Scholar * Alpha T. N’Diaye View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Sergey A. Nikolaev View author publications You can also search for this

author inPubMed Google Scholar * Edmar A. Soares View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Waldemar A. A. Macedo View author publications You can

also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Kai Liu View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Andreas K. Schmid View author

publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Albert Fert View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Mairbek Chshiev

View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS H.Y. and G.C. conceived the study. H.Y and S.A.N. performed the ab initio calculations with

the help of M.C. H.Y., M.C., S.A.N. and A.F. analysed and interpreted the ab initio results. G.C. and A.A.C.C. carried out the SPLEEM measurements. A.K.S. supervised the SPLEEM facility.

G.C., A.A.C.C., A.T.N., K.L. and A.K.S analysed the SPLEEM results. G.C. derived the DMI strength from experimental data. G.C., A.A.C.C., A.T.N., K.L., A.K.S., E.A.S. and W.A.A.M.

interpreted and discussed the experimental result. A.A.C.C., E.A.S. and W.A.A.M. performed XPS measurements. H.Y and G.C. prepared the manuscript with help from A.A.C.C., A.K.S., S.A.N. and

M.C. All authors commented on the manuscript. CORRESPONDING AUTHORS Correspondence to Hongxin Yang, Gong Chen, Andreas K. Schmid or Mairbek Chshiev. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS

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ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Yang, H., Chen, G., Cotta, A.A.C. _et al._ Significant Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction at graphene–ferromagnet interfaces due to the Rashba effect. _Nature Mater_

17, 605–609 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-018-0079-4 Download citation * Received: 13 December 2016 * Accepted: 12 April 2018 * Published: 28 May 2018 * Issue Date: July 2018 *

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