Stabilization of helical magnetic structures in thin multilayers

Abstract

Robust and energetically efficient magnetic structures that employ the spin degree of freedom to store and process information are at the heart of modern spinbased technology. It has recently been shown that the transmission and processing of information without electric currents or external fields can be achieved via the spin degree of freedom subjected to exchange, Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) or long-range dipolar interactions. When structural boundaries fix the magnetization, these interactions can topologically stabilize configurations like spin helices of required periodicity without any presence of chiral Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. It has been pointed out theoretically that these topologically stabilized helices can be used for magnetic energy storage if they are produced experimentally at the nanoscale