High Antiferromagnetic Domain Wall Velocity Induced by Néel Spin-Orbit Torques

Gomonay, O.; Jungwirth, T.; Sinova, Jairo

Abstract

We demonstrate the possibility to drive an antiferromagnetic domain wall at high velocities by fieldlike Néel spin-orbit torques. Such torques arise from current-induced local fields that alternate their orientation on each sublattice of the antiferromagnet and whose orientation depends primarily on the current direction, giving them their fieldlike character. The domain wall velocities that can be achieved by this mechanism are 2 orders of magnitude greater than the ones in ferromagnets. This arises from the efficiency of the staggered spin-orbit fields to couple to the order parameter and from the exchange-enhanced phenomena in
antiferromagnetic texture dynamics, which leads to a low domain wall effective mass and the absence of a Walker breakdown limit. In addition, because of its nature, the staggered spin-orbit field can lift the degeneracy between two 180° rotated states in a collinear antiferromagnet, and it provides a force that can move such walls and control the switching of the states.

Citation

Gomonay, O., Jungwirth, T., & Sinova, J. (2016). High Antiferromagnetic Domain Wall Velocity Induced by Néel Spin-Orbit Torques. Physical Review Letters, 117(1), Article 017202. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.017202

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 21, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Jun 29, 2016
• Publication Date: Jul 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Feb 8, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 8, 2017
• Journal: Physical Review Letters
• Print ISSN: 0031-9007
• Electronic ISSN: 1079-7114
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 117
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 017202
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.017202
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/793073
• Publisher URL: http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.017202
• Contract Date: Feb 8, 2017