First-principles investigation of chiral magnetic properties in multilayers: Rh/Co/Pt and Pd/Co/Pt

TL;DR

This study uses first-principles calculations to explore the magnetic properties of Rh/Co/Pt and Pd/Co/Pt multilayers, focusing on exchange interactions and the potential for skyrmion formation, revealing material-specific sensitivities.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the magnetic interactions and skyrmion potential in Rh/Co/Pt and Pd/Co/Pt multilayers based on first-principles analysis.

Findings

Pd-based systems exhibit strong DMI, enabling skyrmions.

Rh-based systems show high sensitivity of magnetic parameters to structural changes.

All systems display collinear magnetic order with varying interlayer coupling.

Abstract

The magnetic properties of (111)-oriented Rh/Co/Pt and Pd/Co/Pt multilayers are investigated by first-principles calculations. We focus on the interlayer exchange coupling, and identify thicknesses and composition where a typical ferromagnet or a synthetic antiferromagnet across the spacer layer is formed. All systems under investigation show a collinear magnetic intralayer order, but the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) is rather strong for Pd-based systems, so that single magnetic skyrmions can be expected. In general, we find a strong sensitivity of the magnetic parameters (especially the DMI) in Rh-based systems, but Pd-based multilayers are less sensitive to structural details.