Interfacial Rashba-Effect-Induced Anisotropy in Nonmagnetic-Material–Ferrimagnetic-Insulator Bilayers
Aidan J. Lee, Adam Ahmed, Brendan McCullian, Side Guo, Menglin Zhu, Sisheng Yu, Patrick M. Woodward, Jinwoo Hwang, P. C. Hammel, Fengyuan Yang
Abstract
Interfacial magnetic anisotropy in magnetic insulators has been largely unexplored. Recently, interface-induced skyrmions and electrical control of magnetization have been discovered in insulator-based heterostructures, which demand a thorough understanding of interfacial interactions in these materials. We observe a substantial, tunable interfacial magnetic anisotropy between Tm_{3}Fe_{5}O_{12} epitaxial thin films and fifteen nonmagnetic materials spanning a significant portion of the periodic table, which we attribute to Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Our results show a clear distinction between nonmagnetic capping layers from the d block and the p block. This work offers a new path for controlling magnetic phases in magnetic insulators for low-loss spintronic applications.