Interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction studied by time-resolved scanning Kerr microscopy

We investigate the influence of the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) on the propagation of Damon-Eshbach spin waves in micrometer-sized Pt(2 nm)/Co(0.4 nm)/Py(5 nm)/MgO(5 nm) stripes. We use time-resolved scanning Kerr microscopy to image the spin waves excited by a microwave antenna and to directly access their dispersion. The presence of an interfacial DMI manifests itself in an asymmetry in the dispersion for counterpropagating spin waves which reverses sign upon reversal of the direction of the externally applied magnetic field. From this asymmetry we deduce the strength of the interfacial DMI. Micromagnetic simulations confirm that the observed difference in the wave numbers and the signature of the asymmetry are characteristic for the occurrence of an interfacial DMI at the Pt/Co interface and cannot be explained by the uniaxial perpendicular magnetic anisotropy field originating from the same interface.