Observation of large exchange bias and topological Hall effect in manganese nitride films

Abstract

The magnetic and magneto-transport properties of manganese nitride films grown by molecular beam epitaxy have been investigated. Due to the mixed ferrimagnetic (FI) phase (ε-phase with TFI ∼ 738 K) and the antiferromagnetic phase (ζ-phase with TN ∼ 273 K), we observe magnetization hysteresis loops with non-zero exchange bias below TN, reaching ∼0.22 T at 5 K. This indicates that noncollinear spins exist at the interfaces of two phases, creating competition between interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya and exchange interactions. Strikingly, in addition to the normal Hall effect by the Lorentz force and the anomalous Hall effect by magnetizatism, we observe another contribution, namely, topological Hall effect below 75 K. This verifies the existence of topological spin texture, which is the consequence of competing interactions controlled by both applied field and temperature. Our work demonstrates that spintronic devices may be fabricated, exploiting rich magnetic properties of different phases.