Thermal Spin Wave Noise as a Probe for the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction

Abstract

Interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) is a key ingredient in the stabilization of chiral magnetic states in thin films. Its sign and strength often determine crucial properties of magnetic objects, like their topology or how they can be manipulated with currents. A few experimental techniques are currently available to measure DMI quantitatively, based on the study of domain walls, spin waves, or spin-orbit torques. In this Letter, we propose a qualitative variant of spin wave methods. We rely on magnetic noise from confined thermal spin waves in domain walls and skyrmions in perpendicularly magnetized thin films, which we probe with scanning nitrogen-vacancy center relaxometry. We show both numerically and experimentally that the sign of the DMI can be inferred from the amplitude of the detected noise, which is affected by the nonreciprocity in the spin wave dispersion. Furthermore, we also demonstrate that the noise distribution around the contour of magnetic skyrmions reveals their Néel or Bloch nature, giving therefore also insight into the strength of DMI involved in their stabilization.