Antiferromagnetic Devices Research Articles

The structure, magnetic properties, magnetotransport and temperature coefficient of resistivity of hexagonal 4H-SrMnO3 manganite

The perovskite hexagonal SrMnO3 manganite with four layers (4H-SrMnO3) have been one of the hot topics in materials science due to the physical characteristics of antiferromagnetic, ferroelectric, and thermoelectric effects. The transport properties and magnetoresistance (MR) effect of 4H-SrMnO3 have seldom been reported. The structure, temperature coefficient of resistivity (TCR), magnetic and magnetotransport properties of the 4H-SrMnO3 SrMnO3 manganite obtained by solid state reaction have been investigated in this work. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) measurements at room temperature reveal that the SrMnO3 sample exhibits a pure hexagonal symmetric structure, with uniform distribution of particles and elements. Under applied magnetic fields of 2000 Oe, the SrMnO3 sample exhibits a transition from antiferromagnetic (AFM) to paramagnetic (PM) behavior at approximately 280 K, known as the Néel temperature (TN). The resistance is influenced by the magnetic field, but overall exhibits an insulating state. Remarkably, the SrMnO3 sample shows significant MR effect near room temperature. The negative MR near room temperature varies from 5.8 % with 1 T field to 16.8 % with 6 T field, indicating an existence of obvious MR in the hexagonal AFM SrMnO3 manganite. Furthermore, the maxmium value of TCR reaches 4.34 % K−1 near room temperature. These findings of room-temperature TCR and room-temperature MR in the AFM 4H-SrMnO3 hold immense value for the research and potential application of the AFM spintronics and devices.

Electrically Controlled All-Antiferromagnetic Tunnel Junctions on Silicon with Large Room-Temperature Magnetoresistance.

Antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials are a pathway to spintronic memory and computing devices with unprecedented speed, energy efficiency, and bit density. Realizing this potential requires AFM devices with simultaneous electrical writing and reading of information, which are also compatible with established silicon-based manufacturing. Recent experiments have shown tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) readout in epitaxial AFM tunnel junctions. However, these TMR structures are not grown using a silicon-compatible deposition process, and controlling their AFM order required external magnetic fields. Here are shown three-terminal AFM tunnel junctions based on the noncollinear antiferromagnet PtMn3, sputter-deposited on silicon. The devices simultaneously exhibit electrical switching using electric currents, and electrical readout by a large room-temperature TMR effect. First-principles calculations explain the TMR in terms of the momentum-resolved spin-dependent tunneling conduction in tunnel junctions with noncollinear AFM electrodes.

Electrical 180° switching of Néel vector in spin-splitting antiferromagnet.

Antiferromagnetic spintronics have attracted wide attention due to its great potential in constructing ultradense and ultrafast antiferromagnetic memory that suits modern high-performance information technology. The electrical 180° switching of Néel vector is a long-term goal for developing electrical-controllable antiferromagnetic memory with opposite Néel vectors as binary "0" and "1." However, the state-of-art antiferromagnetic switching mechanisms have long been limited for 90° or 120° switching of Néel vector, which unavoidably require multiple writing channels that contradict ultradense integration. Here, we propose a deterministic switching mechanism based on spin-orbit torque with asymmetric energy barrier and experimentally achieve electrical 180° switching of spin-splitting antiferromagnet Mn5Si3. Such a 180° switching is read out by the Néel vector-induced anomalous Hall effect. On the basis of our writing and readout methods, we fabricate an antiferromagnet device with electrical-controllable high- and low-resistance states that accomplishes robust write and read cycles. Besides fundamental advance, our work promotes practical spin-splitting antiferromagnetic devices based on spin-splitting antiferromagnet.

Magnetic phase transition regulated by an interface coupling effect in CrBr3/electride Ca2N van der Waals heterostructures.

Compared with ferromagnetic (FM) materials, antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials have the advantages of not generating stray fields, resisting magnetic field disturbances, and displaying ultrafast dynamics and are thus considered as ideal candidate materials for next-generation high-speed and high-density magnetic storage. In this study, a new AFM device was constructed based on density functional theory calculations through the formation of a CrBr3/Ca2N van der Waals heterostructure. The FM ground state in CrBr3 undergoes an AFM transition when combining with the electride Ca2N. In such a system, since the metal Ca atoms form the exposed layer in the electride, the heterostructure interface has a high binding energy and a large amount of charge transfer. However, for individual electron doping, the FM ground state in the CrBr3 monolayer is robust. Therefore, the main factor in magnetic phase transition is the interface orbital coupling caused by the strong binding energy. Furthermore, the interface coupling effect was revealed to be a competition between direct exchange and superexchange interactions. Additionally, different pathways of orbital hybridization cause a transition of the magnetic anisotropy from out-of-plane to in-plane. This work not only provides a feasible strategy for changing the ground state of magnetic materials on electride substrates but also brings about more possibilities for the construction and advancement of new AFM devices.

Sputter Gas Damage in Nanolayered Pt/Co/Ir-based Synthetic Antiferromagnets for Top-Pinned Magnetic Tunnel Junctions

We examine the role of sputter damage on limiting the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and interlayer exchange coupling in Pt/Co/Ir-based synthetic antiferromagnets, a key building block used in the microelectronics community for standalone and embedded magnetic random access memories. By replacing the more conventional Ar process gas with Kr or Xe, we reduce the energy of backscattered sputter gas ions bombarding the substrate from in excess of 100 eV to a few 10 s of eV. Reducing this kinetic bombardment is critical to avoid intermixing of this nanolayered functional heterostructure, with the constituent Pt, Co, and Ir layer thicknesses each below 1 nm. Our approach leads to a simultaneous enhancement in the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (>2 × 106 J/m3) and interlayer exchange coupling energy (>3.5 mJ/m2). This advantageous improvement in perpendicular anisotropy and interlayer exchange coupling is evident on a 5 nm-thick Pt buffer layer and additionally on an MgO/CoFeB/Mo underlayers complex, showing that this method can improve the performance of both top- and bottom-pinned reference layers in perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction devices. These experimental findings may help advance the processing of conventional and synthetic antiferromagnetic devices for emerging spintronic memory technologies.

Large Exchange Bias Effect and Coverage-Dependent Interfacial Coupling in CrI3/MnBi2Te4 van der Waals Heterostructures

Igniting interface magnetic ordering of magnetic topological insulators by building a van der Waals heterostructure can help to reveal novel quantum states and design functional devices. Here, we observe an interesting exchange bias effect, indicating successful interfacial magnetic coupling, in CrI3/MnBi2Te4 ferromagnetic insulator/antiferromagnetic topological insulator (FMI/AFM-TI) heterostructure devices. The devices originally exhibit a negative exchange bias field, which decays with increasing temperature and is unaffected by the back-gate voltage. When we change the device configuration to be half-covered by CrI3, the exchange bias becomes positive with a very large exchange bias field exceeding 300 mT. Such sensitive manipulation is explained by the competition between the FM and AFM coupling at the interface of CrI3 and MnBi2Te4, pointing to coverage-dependent interfacial magnetic interactions. Our work will facilitate the development of topological and antiferromagnetic devices.

Magnetic reversal stability of spin textures in synthetic antiferromagnetic nanodots

In this work, we demonstrate the nucleation and stability of spin textures in synthetic antiferromagnetic (SAF) nanodot-shaped systems. By employing micromagnetic simulations at 300 K and zero-field, we obtain phase diagrams distinguishing antiferromagnetic (AFM) single domain, skyrmion and skyrmionium states, among other relevant spin textures, depending on the magnetic and geometric parameters of the circular disk. Furthermore, we investigate the magnetization reversal stability under out-of-plane magnetic fields, revealing that, only under specific conditions, AFM skyrmionic textures are preserved in the absence of magnetic fields. The conservation of the skyrmionic structures along the hysteresis cycle is directly linked with an energy barrier reduction for the nucleation of the spin textures. Our findings demonstrate a very promising route in stabilizing AFM chiral skyrmionic structures in nanodots, at ambient conditions, which is a step towards their use in future antiferromagnetic devices.

Antiferromagnetic Order in the Rare-Earth Halide Perovskites CsEuBr3 and CsEuCl3

Bulk CsEuBr$_3$ and CsEuCl$_3$ are experimentally shown to be magnetic semiconductors that order antiferromagnetically at Neel temperatures of 2.0 K and 1.0 K respectively. Given that nanoparticles and thin films of CsEuCl$_3$ have been reported to order ferromagnetically at a similar temperature, our observation of antiferromagnetic ordering in CsEuBr$_3$ and CsEuCl$_3$ expands the possible applications of halide perovskites to now include spintronic devices where both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic devices can be fabricated from a single material. The conclusion that CsEuCl$_3$ can be used as a switchable magnetic material is also supported by our density-functional theory calculations.

Strain-induced shape anisotropy in antiferromagnetic structures

We demonstrate how shape-induced strain can be used to control antiferromagnetic order in NiO/Pt thin films. For rectangular elements patterned along the easy and hard magnetocrystalline anisotropy axes of our film, we observe different domain structures and we identify magnetoelastic interactions that are distinct for different domain configurations. We reproduce the experimental observations by modeling the magnetoelastic interactions, considering spontaneous strain induced by the domain configuration, as well as elastic strain due to the substrate and the shape of the patterns. This allows us to demonstrate and explain how the variation of the aspect ratio of rectangular elements can be used to control the antiferromagnetic ground state domain configuration. Shape-dependent strain does not only need to be considered in the design of antiferromagnetic devices, but can potentially be used to tailor their properties, providing an additional handle to control antiferromagnets.

Optical-acoustic excitation of broadband terahertz antiferromagnetic spin waves

We propose an optical-acoustic means to excite broadband terahertz antiferromagnetic (AFM) spin wave in a metal/insulator/antiferromagnet heterostructure. The AFM spin wave is excited by an ultrafast strain wave triggered by a femtosecond pulsed laser based on photoacoustic conversion. This spin wave comprises an AFM exchange spin wave and a magnetoelastic spin wave. Their dispersion curves are overlapped in a wide frequency range by manipulating the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction, which is accompanied by lifting the degeneration of the spin-wave modes with opposite chirality. This optical-acoustic excitation of spin waves exploits the laser-induced ultrafast strain waves and avoids the thermal effect from the laser. It paves a way to develop novel AFM devices that can apply for ultrafast information processing and communication.

Néel vector driven spin current in a van der Waals antiferromagnetic insulator ( CrCl3 )/heavy metal (Pt) bilayer

The widely distributed GHz to THz spin dynamics of antiferromagnets, combined with the recent demonstration of spin pumping, underscores the potential of dynamic antiferromagnetic devices. Here, we report antiferromagnetic spin pumping from a van der Waals antiferromagnetic insulator ${\text{CrCl}}_{3}$. Spin pumping driven by the N\'eel vector and the net magnetization has been verified, by adjusting the angle between two sublattice magnetizations from ${180}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$ to ${0}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$ while measuring the spin pumping voltages. An enhancement of acoustic mode spin current while decreasing the angle is observed, which proves the spin current is driven by the net magnetization. However, the optical mode spin current increases first and then decreases with the decreasing angle, which proves the optical mode spin current is driven by the N\'eel vector. These findings reveal the underlying contributions of $\mathbit{n}$ in antiferromagnets, and its distinctive role in antiferromagnetic spin pumping.

Orthogonal interlayer coupling in an all-antiferromagnetic junction

In conventional ferromagnet/spacer/ferromagnet sandwiches, noncollinear couplings are commonly absent because of the low coupling energy and strong magnetization. For antiferromagnets (AFM), the small net moment can embody a low coupling energy as a sizable coupling field, however, such AFM sandwich structures have been scarcely explored. Here we demonstrate orthogonal interlayer coupling at room temperature in an all-antiferromagnetic junction Fe2O3/Cr2O3/Fe2O3, where the Néel vectors in the top and bottom Fe2O3 layers are strongly orthogonally coupled and the coupling strength is significantly affected by the thickness of the antiferromagnetic Cr2O3 spacer. From the energy and symmetry analysis, the direct coupling via uniform magnetic ordering in Cr2O3 spacer in our junction is excluded. The coupling is proposed to be mediated by the non-uniform domain wall state in the spacer. The strong long-range coupling in an antiferromagnetic junction provides an unexplored approach for designing antiferromagnetic structures and makes it a promising building block for antiferromagnetic devices.

Third harmonic characterization of antiferromagnetic heterostructures

Electrical switching of antiferromagnets is an exciting recent development in spintronics, which promises active antiferromagnetic devices with high speed and low energy cost. In this emerging field, there is an active debate about the mechanisms of current-driven switching of antiferromagnets. For heavy-metal/ferromagnet systems, harmonic characterization is a powerful tool to quantify current-induced spin-orbit torques and spin Seebeck effect and elucidate current-induced switching. However, harmonic measurement of spin-orbit torques has never been verified in antiferromagnetic heterostructures. Here, we report harmonic measurements in Pt/α-Fe2O3 bilayers, which are explained by our modeling of higher-order harmonic voltages. As compared with ferromagnetic heterostructures where all current-induced effects appear in the second harmonic signals, the damping-like torque and thermally-induced magnetoelastic effect contributions in Pt/α-Fe2O3 emerge in the third harmonic voltage. Our results provide a new path to probe the current-induced magnetization dynamics in antiferromagnets, promoting the application of antiferromagnetic spintronic devices.

Atomically sharp domain walls in an antiferromagnet.

The interest in understanding scaling limits of magnetic textures such as domain walls spans the entire field of magnetism from its physical fundamentals to applications in information technologies. Here, we explore antiferromagnetic CuMnAs in which imaging by x-ray photoemission reveals the presence of magnetic textures down to nanoscale, reaching the detection limit of this established microscopy in antiferromagnets. We achieve atomic resolution by using differential phase-contrast imaging within aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy. We identify abrupt domain walls in the antiferromagnetic film corresponding to the Néel order reversal between two neighboring atomic planes. Our work stimulates research of magnetic textures at the ultimate atomic scale and sheds light on electrical and ultrafast optical antiferromagnetic devices with magnetic field–insensitive neuromorphic functionalities.

Breaking the symmetry of spin-sublattices in antiferromagnet by interfacial tailoring in the L1-MnPt/NaCl/Fe junction

The detection of magnetization states of the antiferromagnets is a precondition to read the binary bits (0 and 1) for the magnetic recording. The magnetoresistance effect has been utilized to detect the magnetization states in commercially ferromagnetic spintronic devices. However, reading the magnetization states of antiferromagnets is extremely hard because of the absence of net magnetic moment in the antiferromagnetic materials. Here, to generate the tunneling magnetoresistance effect in an antiferromagnetic device with the compensated surface, a method of interlayer selection and interfacial tailoring was proposed to break the symmetry of spin-sublattices in antiferromagnets. The stacking structure of the device is L10-MnPt/NaCl/Fe. The C-type antiferromagnet L10-MnPt was used as the antiferromagnetic electrode, and Fe was the other electrode. NaCl was selected as the barrier layer to break the symmetry of spin-sublattices in L10-MnPt by considering the lattice constants of different materials. It is confirmed that the device with the Mn terminal shows the C4v symmetry in which the spin-sublattices symmetry of L10-MnPt was broken. As a result, the tunneling magnetoresistance ratio of the present device can be up to 200%, which is much larger than the reported ratios of both anisotropic magnetoresistance and the spin Hall magnetoresistance effect in the antiferromagnetic devices, showing a great potential application to read the magnetization states of the antiferromagnetic devices. The spin-dependent transport mechanism of the present device was analyzed in detail by the kǁ-resolved transmission and the local density of states. This study would be beneficial to promote the development of antiferromagnetic spintronics.

Large spin to charge conversion in antiferromagnetic Weyl semimetal Mn3Sn

The Weyl antiferromagnet Mn3Sn has recently attracted significant attention as it is not only a novel magnetic quantum material of fundamental interest, but it also opens opportunities to investigate a number of exotic spin-dependent transports for practical antiferromagnetic devices. Here, we report the large spin to charge conversion observed in YIG/Mn3Sn. Evidenced by both spin Seebeck and spin pumping measurements, the spin to charge conversion efficiency of Mn3Sn is found ∼2.5 times of that for the conventional heavy metal Ta. Our results suggest a promising potential for employing a topological non-trivial antiferromagnet to achieve more efficient spin to charge conversion than conventional metallic materials.

Identification of Néel Vector Orientation in Antiferromagnetic Domains Switched by Currents in NiO/Pt Thin Films

Understanding the electrical manipulation of the antiferromagnetic order is a crucial aspect to enable the design of antiferromagnetic devices working at THz frequencies. Focusing on collinear insulating antiferromagnetic $\mathrm{Ni}\mathrm{O}/\mathrm{Pt}$ thin films as a materials platform, we identify the crystallographic orientation of the domains that can be switched by currents and quantify the N\'eel-vector direction changes. We demonstrate electrical switching between different T domains by current pulses, finding that the N\'eel-vector orientation in these domains is along [$\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}5$ $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}5$ 19], different compared to the bulk $⟨112⟩$ directions. The final state of the in-plane component of the N\'eel vector ${\mathbf{n}}_{\mathrm{IP}}$ after switching by current pulses $\mathbf{j}$ along the $[1\phantom{\rule{0.1em}{0ex}}\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1\phantom{\rule{0.1em}{0ex}}0]$ directions is ${\mathbf{n}}_{\mathrm{IP}}\ensuremath{\parallel}\mathbf{j}$. By comparing the observed N\'eel-vector orientation and the strain in the thin films, assuming that this variation arises solely from magnetoelastic effects, we quantify the order of magnitude of the magnetoelastic coupling coefficient as ${b}_{0}+2{b}_{1}=3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{7}\mathrm{J}/{\mathrm{m}}^{3}$. This information is key for the understanding of current-induced switching in antiferromagnets and for the design and use of such devices as active elements in spintronic devices.

Strain-induced Megahertz Oscillation and Stable Velocity of an Antiferromagnetic Domain Wall

Manipulation of magnetic domain walls (DWs) in an antiferromagnet plays a fundamental role in developing antiferromagnetic (AFM) devices with small size and high velocity for information processing. On the other hand, in addition to the ultrahigh-frequency (THz) AFM magnetization precession, recent investigation shows that an antiferromagnet may also exhibit unique dynamical behaviors at a lower frequency (GHz) by an optical method. In this work, we predict the characteristic frequency of AFM magnetization dynamics can be further widened to MHz by triggering the oscillation of an AFM DW under a stress that is a sinusoidal function in a spatial coordinate. This low frequency is due to the mismatch of size between the spatial period of stress and DW width. Based on this low-frequency oscillation, DW can move at an almost constant velocity by shifting the phase of stress. The proposition in this work paves the way to develop AFM devices with small size and ultralow dissipation.

Spin-orbit torque switching of an antiferromagnetic metallic heterostructure

The ability to represent information using an antiferromagnetic material is attractive for future antiferromagnetic spintronic devices. Previous studies have focussed on the utilization of antiferromagnetic materials with biaxial magnetic anisotropy for electrical manipulation. A practical realization of these antiferromagnetic devices is limited by the requirement of material-specific constraints. Here, we demonstrate current-induced switching in a polycrystalline PtMn/Pt metallic heterostructure. A comparison of electrical transport measurements in PtMn with and without the Pt layer, corroborated by x-ray imaging, reveals reversible switching of the thermally-stable antiferromagnetic Néel vector by spin-orbit torques. The presented results demonstrate the potential of polycrystalline metals for antiferromagnetic spintronics.

Exploring the potential of MnX (S, Sb) monolayers for antiferromagnetic spintronics: A theoretical investigation

In this study, we predicted new two-dimensional tetragonal structures of t-Mn2X2 (X = S, Sb) sheets on the basis of first-principles plane wave calculations within density functional theory with Hubbard U model. Stability tests such as phonon spectrum calculation and molecular dynamic simulations reveal that the 2D t-Mn2X2 structures are dynamically and thermally stable at least in room temperature. Our theoretical calculations have shown that t-Mn2X2 structures have two Raman active and seven infrared active modes. The t-Mn2Sb2 sheet exhibits metallic property, whereas t-Mn2S2 shows semiconducting property with a 0.68 eV indirect bandgap. Exploring of the favorable magnetic orientation calculations revealed that both 2D t-Mn2X2 structures prefer antiferromagnetic spin configuration. Estimated critical temperatures for the phase transition from antiferromagnetic spin order to paramagnetic case are 720 K and 545 K for t-Mn2S2 and t-Mn2Sb2, respectively. These relatively high Néel temperatures and their suitable electronic properties for many applications clearly qualify that the 2D t-Mn2X2 sheets can be a good candidate for room temperature antiferromagnetic device applications.