Berlin 2018 – scientific programme
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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus
MA 9: Magnetic domain walls
MA 9.1: Talk
Monday, March 12, 2018, 15:00–15:15, EB 202
Emergence of antiferromagnetic domains out of domain walls — •Ehsan Hassanpour Yesaghi1, Mads C. Weber1, Amadé Bortis1, Thomas Lottermoser1, Yusuke Tokunaga2, Yasujiro Taguchi3, Yoshinori Tokura3, and Manfred Fiebig1 — 1ETH Zurich, Switzerland — 2Univ. of Tokyo, Japan — 3RIKEN CEMS, Japan
Antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials are gaining increasing attention for their potential in technological applications such as spintronics. Strong coupling and faster dynamics as well as robustness against magnetic stray fields are their attractive properties. This robustness, however, makes it chronically difficult to influence AFM states. We propose to manipulate the AFM ordering through the controlled emergence of bulk domains at the phase transition. To demonstrate this, we investigate the weakly-ferromagnetic (wFM) to AFM phase transition in (Dy,Tb)FeO3 which is driven by strongly coupled ordering of magnetic rare-earth and iron ions. The wFM ordering, which can be influenced by an external magnetic field, can persist as a metastable state in the AFM phase. By employing spatially-resolved magneto-optical methods, we demonstrate that AFM domains can emerge out of antiphase domain boundaries of the metastable wFM phase. Furthermore, we design domain-wall configurations that allow the nucleation of two oppositely oriented AFM domains separated by a wFM domain wall. We show with a simple model that symmetry of the domain wall in one phase is the key to seed the nucleation of the desired domain orientation of the other phase.