Sign-tunable anisotropic magnetoresistance and electrically detectable dual magnetic phases in a helical antiferromagnet

Abstract

Emerging from competing exchange interactions, the helimagnetic order describes a noncollinear spin texture of antiferromagnets. Although collinear antiferromagnets act as the elemental building blocks of antiferromagnetic (AFM) spintronics, until now, the potential of implementing spintronic functionality in noncollinear antiferromagnets has not been clarified. Here, we propose an AFM helimagnet of EuCo2As2 as a novel single-phase spintronic material that exhibits a remarkable sign reversal of anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR). The contrast in the AMR arises from two electrically distinctive magnetic phases with spin reorientation that is driven by the magnetic field prevailing in the easy plane, which converts the AMR from positive to negative. Furthermore, based on an easy-plane anisotropic spin model, we theoretically identified various AFM memory states associated with the evolution of the spin structure under magnetic fields. The results revealed the potential of noncollinear antiferromagnets for application in the development of spintronic devices.