Berlin 2024 – scientific programme

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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus

MA 11: Functional Antiferromagnetism

MA 11.13: Talk

Monday, March 18, 2024, 18:15–18:30, EB 202

Bi-directional current-induced switching of insulating antiferromagnetic thin films — •Christin Schmitt¹, Adithya Rajan¹, Grischa Beneke¹, Aditya Kumar¹, Tobias Sparmann¹, Hendrik Meer¹, Beatrice Bednarz¹, Rafael Ramos², Miguel Angel Niño³, Michael Foerster³, Eiji Saitoh², and Mathias Kläui¹ — ¹Institute of Physics, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany — ²Department of Applied Physics, The University of Tokyo, Japan — ³ALBA Synchrotron Light Facility, Spain

Antiferromagnets (AFMs) have gained interest as active elements in spintronic devices due to intrinsic dynamics in the THz range and the absence of stray fields. Efficient electrical writing and reading is necessary in terms of applications but challenging to realize. For insulating AFMs different switching mechanisms based on spin-orbit torques (SOTs) or thermomagnetoelastic effects have been put forward [1,2]. Here, we focus on ultrathin CoO/Pt films, where SOTs should be particularly pronounced. We observe that electrical pulses along the same path can lead to an increase or decrease of the electrical readout-signal, depending on the current density of the pulse. By photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) employing the x-ray magnetic linear dichroism (XMLD) effect we shed light on this observation and determine for which situations this is a sign of two competing switching mechanisms or a result of the way the electrical measurement is conducted [3]. [1] T. Moriyama, et al., Sci. Rep. 8, 14167 (2018). [2] P. Zhang, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 247206 (2019). [3] C.Schmitt, et al., arXiv:2303.13308.

Keywords: Antiferromagnet; Electrical-switching; XMLD-PEEM; Thermomagnetoelastic; Spin-orbit torque