Intrinsic asymmetry in chiral domain walls due to the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction

We present an analytical description of the energy density of chiral magnetic domain walls (DWs) that considers variations in DW width. Surprisingly, under the application of a longitudinal in-plane magnetic field, the DW width varies abnormally, resulting in an asymmetric variation of the DW energy density. Such asymmetry is attributable to the nonlinear contribution to the effective magnetic field from the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. The formation of such asymmetric DWs is confirmed by a micromagnetic simulation. The present prediction proposes a possible origin of the experimental asymmetry related to chiral damping. (C) 2016 The Japan Society of Applied Physics