Electrical switching of the perpendicular Néel order in a collinear antiferromagnet

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发表日期：

2024年9月30日

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Wenqing He,
Tianyi Zhang,
Yongjian Zhou,
Caihua Wan,
Hao Wu,
Baoshan Cui,
Jihao Xia,
Ran Zhang,
Tengyu Guo,
Peng Chen,
Mingkun Zhao,
Leina Jiang,
Alexander Grutter,
Purnima P. Balakrishnan,
Andrew J. Caruana,
Christy J. Kinane,
Sean Langridge,
Guoqiang Yu,
Cheng Song,
Xiufeng Han

摘要

Spintronics is based on the electrical manipulation of magnetic order through current-induced spin torques. In collinear antiferromagnets with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, binary states can be directly encoded in their opposite Néel order. The negligible stray fields and terahertz spin dynamics of these systems mean that they could potentially be used to develop ultrafast memory devices with high integration density. Here we report electrical switching of the perpendicular Néel order in a collinear antiferromagnet. We show that the Néel order in a prototypical collinear antiferromagnetic insulator—chromium oxide (Cr₂O₃)—can be switched by the spin–orbit torque with a low current density (5.8 × 10⁶ A cm⁻²) and read out by the anomalous Hall effect. We also show that the magnetization of a Y₃Fe₅O₁₂ film exchange-coupled to the Cr₂O₃ layer can be electrically switched, confirming the Néel order switching of the Cr₂O₃ layer.