Magnetic anisotropy in antiferromagnetic hexagonal MnTe

Kriegner, D.; Reichlova, H.; Grenzer, J.; Schmidt, W.; Ressouche, E.; Godinho, J.; Wagner, T.; Martin, S.Y.; Shick, A.B.; Volobuev, V.V.; Springholz, G.; Hol�, V.; Wunderlich, J.; Jungwirth, T.; V�born�, K.

Abstract

Antiferromagnetic hexagonal MnTe is a promising material for spintronic devices relying on the control of antiferromagnetic domain orientations. Here we report on neutron diffraction, magnetotransport, and magnetometry experiments on semiconducting epitaxial MnTe thin films together with density functional theory (DFT) calculations of the magnetic anisotropies. The easy axes of the magnetic moments within the hexagonal basal plane are determined to be along ⟨1¯100⟩ directions. The spin-flop transition and concomitant repopulation of domains in strong magnetic fields is observed. Using epitaxially induced strain the onset of the spin-flop transition changes from ∼2 to ∼0.5 T for films grown on InP and SrF2 substrates, respectively.

Citation

Kriegner, D., Reichlova, H., Grenzer, J., Schmidt, W., Ressouche, E., Godinho, J., Wagner, T., Martin, S., Shick, A., Volobuev, V., Springholz, G., Holý, V., Wunderlich, J., Jungwirth, T., & Výborný, K. (2017). Magnetic anisotropy in antiferromagnetic hexagonal MnTe. Physical Review B, 96(21), https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.214418

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 1, 2017
• Publication Date: Dec 13, 2017
• Deposit Date: Feb 28, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 28, 2018
• Journal: Physical Review B
• Print ISSN: 2469-9950
• Electronic ISSN: 2469-9969
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 96
• Issue: 21
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.214418
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/900003
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.214418
• Contract Date: Feb 28, 2018