Domain walls in Pt/Co/Pt influenced by microstructure, strain and the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction

Co/Pt multilayers were one of the first thin film systems with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) to be studied [1]. Originally attractive because of their potential as magneto-optic recording media, they are now of interest for the study of magnetic domain walls and spin torque. The physics of domain walls and their response to magnetic field and electric current underpins device concepts such as magnetic logic [2] and domain wall memory [3]. Spin-orbit and interface effects such as spin-orbit torque and the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) have recently been found to have an important influence on the dynamics of domain walls in multilayers with PMA [4]. Here we examine the effect of microstructure and strain on domain wall creep in Pt/Co/Pt films, and describe a method of determining the DMI that removes the possibility of mixing with current-related effects.