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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus

MA 43: Magnetic textures I

MA 43.2: Talk

Thursday, March 15, 2018, 09:45–10:00, EB 407

Spin-polarized STM study of the Fe monolayer on Rh(111) — •Markus Böhme¹, Jens Kügel¹, Martin Schmitt¹, Nicolai Seubert¹, Julia Küspert¹, Andreas Krönlein¹, Bandar Alonazi², Hamad Albrithen², and Matthias Bode¹ — ¹Physikalisches Institut, Experimentelle Physik II, *Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany — ²King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Skyrmions in thin magnetic films stabilized by the Dzyaloshinskii-Morija interaction (DMI) have recently attracted considerable interest. Whereas Skyrmions are usually only stable in applied magnetic fields, the Fe monolayer on Ir(111) turned out to be unique as it exhibits a square lattice ground state of nano-skyrmions even without a field [1]. Here we report spin-polarized STM experiments performed on a monolayer Fe on Rh(111), a substrate that is isoelectronic and isostructural to Ir(111), but with Rh having a much smaller spin-orbit interaction than Ir and thus negligible DMI. In agreement with earlier calculations [2], which predicted a double–row-wise antiferromagnetic (↑↑↓↓) spin structure, we observe stripes oriented along ⟨ 110 ⟩-equivalent directions of the substrate. The periodicity of (1.0 ± 0.1) nm corresponds well with the expected value of 0.931 nm. These stripes exists in three orientational domains. Magnetic field-dependent data indicate that domain walls are associated with uncompensated magnetic moments that give rise to hysteresis effect due to domain wall movement.

[1] S. Heinze et. al., Nature Physics 7, 713 (2011).

[2] A. Al-Zubi et. al., phys. stat. sol. (b) 248, 2242 (2011).