Spin-orbit enabled all-electrical readout of chiral spin-textures

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new chiral spin-mixing magnetoresistance effect enabling efficient all-electrical detection of chiral and topological magnetic states, advancing spintronics applications.

Contribution

It reveals the chiral spin-mixing magnetoresistance (C-XMR) effect through first-principles simulations, providing a practical method for electrical readout of chiral spin textures.

Findings

C-XMR is linearly dependent on spin-orbit coupling.

The effect is demonstrated on spin-spirals and skyrmions.

It offers a simple implementation for detecting topological magnetic states.

Abstract

Chirality and topology are intimately related fundamental concepts, which are heavily explored to establish spin-textures as potential magnetic bits in information technology. However, this ambition is inhibited since electrical reading of chiral attributes is highly non-trivial with conventional current perpendicular-to-plane (CPP) sensing devices. Here we demonstrate from extensive first-principles simulations and multiple scattering expansion the emergence of the chiral spin-mixing magnetoresistance (C-XMR) enabling highly efficient all-electrical readout of the chirality and helicity of respectively one- and two-dimensional magnetic states of matter. It is linear with spin-orbit coupling in contrast to the quadratic dependence associated with the newly unveiled non-local spin-mixing anisotropic MR (X-AMR). Such transport effects are systematised on various non-collinear magnetic states -- spin-spirals and skyrmions -- and compared to the uncovered spin-orbit-independent multi-site magnetoresistances. Owing to their simple implementation in readily available reading devices, the proposed magnetoresistances offer exciting and decisive ingredients to explore with all-electrical means the rich physics of topological and chiral magnetic objects.