Electrical switching of an antiferromagnet

Wadley, P.; Howells, B.; �elezn�, J.; Andrews, C.; Hills, V.; Campion, R. P.; Nov�k, V.; Olejnik, K.; Maccherozzi, F.; Dhesi, S. S.; Martin, S. Y.; Wagner, T.; Wunderlich, J.; Freimuth, F.; Mokrousov, Y.; Kunes, J.; Chauhan, Jasbinder; Grzybowski, M. J.; Rushforth, A. W.; Edmonds, K. W.; Gallagher, B. L.; Jungwirth, T.

Abstract

Antiferromagnets are hard to control by external magnetic fields because of the alternating directions of magnetic moments on individual atoms and the resulting zero net magnetization. However, relativistic quantum mechanics allows for generating current-induced internal fields whose sign alternates with the periodicity of the antiferromagnetic lattice. Using these fields, which couple strongly to the antiferromagnetic order, we demonstrate room-temperature electrical switching between stable configurations in antiferromagnetic CuMnAs thin-film devices by applied current with magnitudes of order 10 6 ampere per square centimeter. Electrical writing is combined in our solid-state memory with electrical readout and the stored magnetic state is insensitive to and produces no external magnetic field perturbations, which illustrates the unique merits of antiferromagnets for spintronics.

Citation

Wadley, P., Howells, B., Železný, J., Andrews, C., Hills, V., Campion, R. P., …Jungwirth, T. (2016). Electrical switching of an antiferromagnet. Science, 351(6273), 587-590. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aab1031

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 4, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Jan 14, 2016
• Publication Date: Feb 5, 2016
• Deposit Date: Mar 8, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 8, 2017
• Journal: Science
• Print ISSN: 0036-8075
• Electronic ISSN: 1095-9203
• Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 351
• Issue: 6273
• Pages: 587-590
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aab1031
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/777015
• Publisher URL: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/351/6273/587
• Additional Information: This is the author’s version of the work. It is posted here by permission of the AAAS for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Science on vol. 351, 5 Feb 2016, DOI:10.1126/science.aab1031