Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Physics and Astronomy Dissertations Department of Physics and Astronomy Spring 4-30-2018 DMI Interaction and Domain Evolution in Magnetic Heterostructures with Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy Jagodage Kasuni S. Nanayakkara Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/phy_astr_diss Recommended Citation Nanayakkara, Jagodage Kasuni S., "DMI Interaction and Domain Evolution in Magnetic Heterostructures with Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2018. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/phy_astr_diss/102 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Physics and Astronomy Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. DMI INTERACTION AND DOMAIN EVOLUTION IN MAGNETIC HETEROSTRUCTURES WITH PERPENDICULAR MAGNETIC ANISOTROPY by JAGODAGE KASUNI NANAYAKKARA Under the Direction of Alexander Kozhanov, PhD ABSTRACT My thesis is dedicated to the study of the magnetic interactions and magnetization reversal dynamics in ferromagnetic heterostructures with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). Two related projects will be included: 1) investigating interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) in multilayer structures; 2) controlled stripe domain growth in PMA heterostructures. Magneto Optic Kerr Effect microscopy and magnetometry techniques along with vibrating sample magnetometry were used to investigate these phenomena. The CoPt bi-layer system is a well-known PMA material system exhibiting DMI. However, films with many CoPt bi-layers are known as having zero effective DMI due to its inversion symmetry. I focused my research on CoNiPt tri-layer heterostructures with broken inversion symmetry.