Abstract
In this work, we discuss the nature of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) in transition metal heterostructures. We first derive the expression of DMI in the small-spatial-gradient limit using Keldysh formalism. This derivation provides us with a Green's function formula that is well adapted to tight-binding Hamiltonians. With this tool, we first uncover the role of orbital mixing: Using both a toy model and a realistic multiorbital Hamiltonian representing transition metal heterostructures, we show that symmetry breaking enables the onset of interfacial orbital momentum that is at the origin of the DMI. We then investigate the contribution of the different layers to the DMI and reveal that it can expand over several nonmagnetic metal layers depending on the Fermi energy, thereby revealing the complex orbital texture of the band structure. Finally, we examine the thickness dependence of DMI on both ferromagnetic and nonmagnetic metal thicknesses and we find that whereas the former remains very weak, the latter can be substantial.