Insights on induced magnetic moments and spin textures in synthetic ferrimagnetic Pt/Co/Gd heterolayers

To develop new devices based on synthetic ferrimagnetic (S-FiM) heterostructures, understanding the material's physical properties is pivotal. Here, the induced magnetic moment (IMM), magnetic exchange-coupling, and spin textures were investigated at room-temperature in Pt/Co/Gd multilayers using a multiscale approach. The magnitude and direction of the IMM were interpreted experimentally and theoretically in the framework of both X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) and density functional theory (DFT). The results demonstrate that the IMM transferred by Co across the Gd paramagnetic (PM) thickness leads to a flipped spin state (FSS) within the Gd layers, in which their magnetic moments couple antiparallel/parallel with the ferromagnetic (FM) Co near/far from the Co/Gd interface, respectively. For the Pt, in both Pt/Co and Gd/Pt interfaces the IMM follows the same direction as the Co magnetic moment, with negligible IMM in the Gd/Pt interface. Additionally, zero-field spin spirals were imaged using scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM), while micromagnetic simulations employed to unfold the interactions stabilizing the FiM configurations, where the existence of a sizable Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction is demonstrated to be crucial for the formation of those spin textures. Our outcomes may add fundamental physical and technological aspects for using FiM films in antiferromagnetic spintronic devices.