Asymmetric spin-wave dispersion on Fe(110): direct evidence of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction

Phys Rev Lett. 2010 Apr 2;104(13):137203. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.137203. Epub 2010 Mar 30.

Abstract

The influence of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction on the spin-wave dispersion in an Fe double layer grown on W(110) is measured for the first time. It is demonstrated that the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction breaks the degeneracy of spin waves and leads to an asymmetric spin-wave dispersion relation. An extended Heisenberg spin Hamiltonian is employed to obtain the longitudinal component of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya vectors from the experimentally measured energy asymmetry.