Evidence for Rashba magnetism in ultrathin ferromagnet–heavy metal bilayers

Here, we show that ultrathin transition ferromagnet–heavy metal bilayers exhibit anomalous temperature- and electric bias-dependent behaviors near the Curie temperature, inconsistent with the usual Weiss magnetism. Characterization by several complementary techniques and analysis of the dependence on composition reveal that these effects originate from the interplay between interfacial spin-orbit interaction and magnetism, resulting in the emergence of a state with distinct magnetic and magnetoelectronic properties that can be described in the framework of the Rashba model as Rashba magnetism. Our findings open a route for the characterization and control of interfacial spin-orbit phenomena for efficient spin-orbitronic devices.. Authors: Ivanov, Sergei [Emory Univ., Atlanta, GA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000195946381); Zhang, Yiou [Emory Univ., Atlanta, GA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000300433159); Chen, Guanxiong [Emory Univ., Atlanta, GA (United States)]; Peacock, Joshua [Emory Univ., Atlanta, GA (United States)]; Demidov, Vladislav E. [Univ. of Münster (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000278405679). DOE Contract: AC02-06CH11357; SC0018976. Subjects: 71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; anomalous Hall effect; exchange interaction; magnetic multilayers; ultrathin films