Current-induced domain wall motion in antiferromagnetically coupled structures: Fundamentals and applications

Abstract

Abstract The current-induced spin-torques provide an efficient means of manipulating magnetization, introducing the way for next generation spintronic devices. During the past decades, studies have mainly focused on ferromagnetic materials. In recent years, antiferromagnetically coupled structures have been found with more efficient spin-toques and robust to magnetic noises. This is because they have the strongly exchange-coupled magnetic sublattice structures, and the antiferromagnetic order parameter dynamics are different from those of the ferromagnetic ones. As a result, the antiferromagnetically coupled structures offer a novel approach for reducing energy consumption as well as the immunity against external magnetic perturbation in spintronic devices. In this review, we discuss current-induced domain wall motion under the action of different spin torques in a wide range of antiferromagnetically coupled materials. New approaches and prospective applications of the antiferromagnetic structure-based devices are also discussed.