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- Letter
Atomic-scale Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya-modified Yoshimori spirals in an Fe double layer on Ir(110)
Phys. Rev. B 111, L020405 – Published 14 January, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.111.L020405
Abstract
Ultrathin magnetic films on heavy metal substrates with strong spin-orbit coupling provide versatile platforms for exploring novel spin textures. So far, structurally open fcc(110) substrates remain largely unexplored. Here, we stabilize a metastable, unreconstructed Ir(110)- surface on which Fe forms a stable pseudomorphic double layer. Combining spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy and ab initio calculations, we reveal a right-handed Néel-type spin spiral along the crystallographic direction with a period of 1.27 nm as the magnetic ground state. Our analysis reveals this spiral is of the Yoshimori type, i.e., driven by frustrated Heisenberg interactions, with the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction determining its cycloidal nature and handedness.