Brillouin light scattering investigation of the thickness dependence of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in Co0.5Fe0.5 ultrathin films

Co0.5Fe0.5 (CoFe) ultrathin films of various thicknesses (0.8 nm <= t(CoFe) <= 1.6 nm) have been grown by sputtering on (001) MgO single crystal or Si/SiO2 substrates, using Pt as capping or buffer layers, respectively. The x-ray diffraction revealed an in-plane epitaxial (isotropic) growth of Pt on MgO (Si). Their magnetic properties have been studied by vibrating sample magnetometry and Brillouin light scattering (BLS) in the Damon-Eshbach geometry. Vibrating sample magnetometry characterizations show that films grown on MgO are in-plane magnetized, while films deposited on Si are perpendicularly magnetized for CoFe thickness below 1.4 nm. The BLS measurements reveal a pronounced nonreciprocal spin waves propagation, which increases with decreasing CoFe thickness. This nonreciprocitywas attributed to an interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) induced by Pt interface with CoFe. Moreover, the DMI sign has been found to depend on the stacks order: it is positive (negative) for CoFe/Pt (Pt/CoFe). The effective thickness dependence of the DMI effective constant shows two regimes due to the degradation of the interfaces as the CoFe thickness decreases. We thus show that the magnetic dead layer should be taken into account to precisely determine the surface DMI constant D-s. Therefore, for the thickest samples, the surface DMI constants are nearly opposite: -1.27 and 1.32 pJm(-1) for Pt/CoFe and its reversed system, respectively.