Interlayer Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions

Interfacial Dzyaloshinkii-Moriya interaction defines a rotational sense for the magnetization of two-dimensional films making it responsible for the formation of chiral magnetic structures like spin-spirals and skyrmions in those films. Here we show by means of atomistic calculations that in heterostructures magnetic layers can be additionally coupled by an interlayer Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction across a spacer. We quantify this interaction in the framework of the Levy-Fert model for trilayers consisting of two ferromagnets separated by a non-magnetic spacer yielding non-trivial three-dimensional spiral states across the trilayer. This analysis enables three-dimensional tailoring of the magnetization chirality in magnetic multilayers.