Chirality selection in the vortex state of magnetic nanodisks with a screw dislocation

Abstract

Structural defects in magnetic crystalline materials may locally change magnetic properties and can significantly influence the behavior of magnetic nanostructures. E.g., surface-induced Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions can strongly affect vortex structures in magnetic nanodisks causing a chirality selection. Near lattice defects, the spin-orbit interactions induce local antisymmetric Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya exchange and cause effective anisotropies, which can result in spin canting. Broken inversion symmetry near a defect leads to locally chiral exchange. We present a phenomenological approach for dislocation-induced Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya couplings. As an example we investigate effects of a screw dislocation at the center of a magnetic nanodisk with a vortex state. By numerical calculations on vortex profiles we analyze equilibrium parameters of the vortex as functions of applied magnetic field and the material and geometrical parameters. It is proposed that magnetic nanodisks with defects provide a suitable experimental setting to study induced chirality by spin-orbit effects.