Current polarity-dependent manipulation of antiferromagnetic domains

Antiferromagnets have several favourable properties as active elements in spintronic devices, including ultra-fast dynamics, zero stray fields and insensitivity to external magnetic fields. Tetragonal CuMnAs is a testbed system in which the antiferromagnetic order parameter can be switched reversibl...

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Main Authors: Wadley, P., Reimers, Sonka, Grzybowski, M.J., Andrews, Carl, Wang, Mu, Chauhan, Jasbinder, Gallagher, B.L., Campion, R.P., Edmonds, K.W., Dhesi, S.S., Maccherozzi, F., Novák, V., Wunderlich, J., Jungwirth, T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Macmillan Publishers Limited 2018
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Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50274/
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author Wadley, P.
Reimers, Sonka
Grzybowski, M.J.
Andrews, Carl
Wang, Mu
Chauhan, Jasbinder
Gallagher, B.L.
Campion, R.P.
Edmonds, K.W.
Dhesi, S.S.
Maccherozzi, F.
Novák, V.
Wunderlich, J.
Jungwirth, T.
author_facet Wadley, P.
Reimers, Sonka
Grzybowski, M.J.
Andrews, Carl
Wang, Mu
Chauhan, Jasbinder
Gallagher, B.L.
Campion, R.P.
Edmonds, K.W.
Dhesi, S.S.
Maccherozzi, F.
Novák, V.
Wunderlich, J.
Jungwirth, T.
author_sort Wadley, P.
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Antiferromagnets have several favourable properties as active elements in spintronic devices, including ultra-fast dynamics, zero stray fields and insensitivity to external magnetic fields. Tetragonal CuMnAs is a testbed system in which the antiferromagnetic order parameter can be switched reversibly at ambient conditions using electrical currents. In previous experiments, orthogonal in-plane current pulses were used to induce 90° rotations of antiferromagnetic domains and demonstrate the operation of all-electrical memory bits in a multi-terminal geometry. Here, we demonstrate that antiferromagnetic domain walls can be manipulated to realize stable and reproducible domain changes using only two electrical contacts. This is achieved by using the polarity of the current to switch the sign of the current-induced effective field acting on the antiferromagnetic sublattices. The resulting reversible domain and domain wall reconfigurations are imaged using X-ray magnetic linear dichroism microscopy, and can also be detected electrically. Switching by domain-wall motion can occur at much lower current densities than those needed for coherent domain switching.
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spelling nottingham-502742018-09-12T04:30:32Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50274/ Current polarity-dependent manipulation of antiferromagnetic domains Wadley, P. Reimers, Sonka Grzybowski, M.J. Andrews, Carl Wang, Mu Chauhan, Jasbinder Gallagher, B.L. Campion, R.P. Edmonds, K.W. Dhesi, S.S. Maccherozzi, F. Novák, V. Wunderlich, J. Jungwirth, T. Antiferromagnets have several favourable properties as active elements in spintronic devices, including ultra-fast dynamics, zero stray fields and insensitivity to external magnetic fields. Tetragonal CuMnAs is a testbed system in which the antiferromagnetic order parameter can be switched reversibly at ambient conditions using electrical currents. In previous experiments, orthogonal in-plane current pulses were used to induce 90° rotations of antiferromagnetic domains and demonstrate the operation of all-electrical memory bits in a multi-terminal geometry. Here, we demonstrate that antiferromagnetic domain walls can be manipulated to realize stable and reproducible domain changes using only two electrical contacts. This is achieved by using the polarity of the current to switch the sign of the current-induced effective field acting on the antiferromagnetic sublattices. The resulting reversible domain and domain wall reconfigurations are imaged using X-ray magnetic linear dichroism microscopy, and can also be detected electrically. Switching by domain-wall motion can occur at much lower current densities than those needed for coherent domain switching. Macmillan Publishers Limited 2018-03-12 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50274/1/polarity%20switching%20accepted.pdf Wadley, P., Reimers, Sonka, Grzybowski, M.J., Andrews, Carl, Wang, Mu, Chauhan, Jasbinder, Gallagher, B.L., Campion, R.P., Edmonds, K.W., Dhesi, S.S., Maccherozzi, F., Novák, V., Wunderlich, J. and Jungwirth, T. (2018) Current polarity-dependent manipulation of antiferromagnetic domains. Nature Nanotechnology, 13 . pp. 362-365. ISSN 1748-3395 Applied physics; Condensed-matter physics; Electronics photonics and device physics; Nanoscale devices; Nanoscale materials https://www.nature.com/articles/s41565-018-0079-1 doi:10.1038/s41565-018-0079-1 doi:10.1038/s41565-018-0079-1
spellingShingle Applied physics; Condensed-matter physics; Electronics
photonics and device physics; Nanoscale devices; Nanoscale materials
Wadley, P.
Reimers, Sonka
Grzybowski, M.J.
Andrews, Carl
Wang, Mu
Chauhan, Jasbinder
Gallagher, B.L.
Campion, R.P.
Edmonds, K.W.
Dhesi, S.S.
Maccherozzi, F.
Novák, V.
Wunderlich, J.
Jungwirth, T.
Current polarity-dependent manipulation of antiferromagnetic domains
title Current polarity-dependent manipulation of antiferromagnetic domains
title_full Current polarity-dependent manipulation of antiferromagnetic domains
title_fullStr Current polarity-dependent manipulation of antiferromagnetic domains
title_full_unstemmed Current polarity-dependent manipulation of antiferromagnetic domains
title_short Current polarity-dependent manipulation of antiferromagnetic domains
title_sort current polarity-dependent manipulation of antiferromagnetic domains
topic Applied physics; Condensed-matter physics; Electronics
photonics and device physics; Nanoscale devices; Nanoscale materials
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50274/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50274/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50274/