Highly Reduced Saturation Magnetization in Epitaxially Grown Ferrimagnetic Heusler Thin Films.

The key of spintronic devices using the spin-transfer torque phenomenon is the effective reduction of switching current density by lowering the damping constant and the saturation magnetization while retaining strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. To reduce the saturation magnetization, particular conditions such as specific substitutions or buffer layers are required. Herein, we demonstrate highly reduced saturation magnetization in tetragonal D022 Mn3-x Ga thin films prepared by rf magnetron sputtering, where the epitaxial growth is examined on various substrates without any buffer layer. As the lattice mismatch between the sample and the substrate decreases from LaAlO3 and (LaAlO3)0.3(Sr2AlTaO6)0.7 to SrTiO3, the quality of Mn3-x Ga films is improved together with the magnetic and electronic properties. Especially, the Mn3-x Ga thin film epitaxially grown on the SrTiO3 substrate, fully oriented along the c axis perpendicular to the film plane, exhibits significantly reduced saturation magnetization as low as 0.06 µB, compared to previous results. By the structural and chemical analyses, we find that the predominant removal of Mn II atoms and the large population of Mn3+ ions affect the reduced saturation magnetization. Our findings provide insights into the magnetic properties of Mn3-x Ga crystals, which promise great potential for spin-related device applications.

Author Correction: Long-range chiral exchange interaction in synthetic antiferromagnets.

In the version of this Article originally published, the sentence 'D.-S.H. wrote the paper with K.L., J.H. and M.K.' in the author contributions was incorrect; it should have read 'D.-S.H. wrote the paper with K.L., J.H., M.-H.J. and M.K.' This has been corrected in the online versions of the Article.

Long-range chiral exchange interaction in synthetic antiferromagnets.

The exchange interaction governs static and dynamic magnetism. This fundamental interaction comes in two flavours-symmetric and antisymmetric. The symmetric interaction leads to ferro- and antiferromagnetism, and the antisymmetric interaction has attracted significant interest owing to its major role in promoting topologically non-trivial spin textures that promise fast, energy-efficient devices. So far, the antisymmetric exchange interaction has been found to be rather short ranged and limited to a single magnetic layer. Here we report a long-range antisymmetric interlayer exchange interaction in perpendicularly magnetized synthetic antiferromagnets with parallel and antiparallel magnetization alignments. Asymmetric hysteresis loops under an in-plane field reveal a unidirectional and chiral nature of this interaction, which results in canted magnetic structures. We explain our results by considering spin-orbit coupling combined with reduced symmetry in multilayers. Our discovery of a long-range chiral interaction provides an additional handle to engineer magnetic structures and could enable three-dimensional topological structures.