Large voltage tuning of Dzyalonshinskii-Moriya interaction: towards a chirality switch?

Electric field can tune interfacial magnetism, thus paving the way towards new low power devices using gate voltage. In particular, its effect on skyrmions, which are promising to code information bits, is a critical issue. Here, we first address the effect of electric field on interfacial anisotropy in Pt/Co/AlOx ultrathin trilayers and the possibility to control skyrmion nucleation and annihilation with gate voltage. Then we report the effect of electric field on the interfacial interaction responsible for skyrmions, namely Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction (DMI). We demonstrate an unprecedented large electric field effect on DMI (βDMI = 600 fJV-1m-1) in Ta/FeCoB/TaOx ultrathin trilayers through Brillouin Light Scattering spectroscopy. Additional Kerr effect observations lead us to propose that electric field could ultimately reverse the sign of DMI, resulting in chirality switch.