No Arabic abstract
Antiferromagnetic materials could represent the future of spintronic applications thanks to the numerous interesting features they combine: they are robust against perturbation due to magnetic fields, produce no stray fields, display ultrafast dynamics and are capable of generating large magneto-transport effects. Intense research efforts over the past decade have been invested in unraveling spin transport properties in antiferromagnetic materials. Whether spin transport can be used to drive the antiferromagnetic order and how subsequent variations can be detected are some of the thrilling challenges currently being addressed. Antiferromagnetic spintronics started out with studies on spin transfer, and has undergone a definite revival in the last few years with the publication of pioneering articles on the use of spin-orbit interactions in antiferromagnets. This paradigm shift offers possibilities for radically new concepts for spin manipulation in electronics. Central to these endeavors are the need for predictive models, relevant disruptive materials and new experimental designs. This paper reviews the most prominent spintronic effects described based on theoretical and experimental analysis of antiferromagnetic materials. It also details some of the remaining bottlenecks and suggests possible avenues for future research.
Control and detection of spin order in ferromagnets is the main principle allowing storing and reading of magnetic information in nowadays technology. The large class of antiferromagnets, on the other hand, is less utilized, despite its very appealing features for spintronics applications. For instance, the absence of net magnetization and stray fields eliminates crosstalk between neighbouring devices and the absence of a primary macroscopic magnetization makes spin manipulation in antiferromagnets inherently faster than in ferromagnets. However, control of spins in antiferromagnets requires exceedingly high magnetic fields, and antiferromagnetic order cannot be detected with conventional magnetometry. Here we provide an overview and illustrative examples of how electromagnetic radiation can be used for probing and modification of the magnetic order in antiferromagnets. Spin pumping from antiferromagnets, propagation of terahertz spin excitations, and tracing the reversal of the antiferromagnetic and ferroelectric order parameter in multiferroics are anticipated to be among the main topics defining the future of this field.
This focused issue attempts to provide a comprehensive introduction into the field of antiferromagnetic spintronics. Apart from the brief overview below, it features five review articles. The intention is to cover in a coherent and complementary way key physical aspects of the antiferromagnetic spintronics research. These range from microelectronic memory devices and optical manipulation and detection of antiferromagnetic spins, to the fundamentals of antiferromagnetic dynamics in uniform or spin-textured systems, and to the interplay of antiferromagnetic spintronics with topological phenomena. The antiferromagnetic ordering can take a number of forms including fully compensated collinear, non-collinear, and non-coplanar magnetic lattices, compensated and uncompensated ferrimagnets, or metamagnetic materials hosting an antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic phase transition. Apart from the variety of distinct magnetic crystal structures, the focused issue also encompasses spintronic phenomena and devices studied in antiferromagnet/ferromagnet heterostructures and in synthetic antiferromagnets.
In recent years, antiferromagnetic spintronics has received much attention since ideal antiferromagnets do not produce stray fields and are much more stable to external magnetic fields compared to materials with net magnetization. Akin to antiferromagnets, compensated ferrimagnets have zero net magnetization but have the potential for large spin-polarization and strong out of plane magnetic anisotropy, and, hence, are ideal candidates for high density memory applications. Here, we demonstrate that a fully compensated magnetic state with a tunable magnetic anisotropy is realized in Mn-Pt-Ga based tetragonal Heusler thin films. Furthermore, we show that a bilayer formed from a fully compensated and a partially compensated Mn-Pt-Ga layer, exhibits a large interfacial exchange bias up to room temperature. The present work establishes a novel design principle for spintronic devices that are formed from materials with similar elemental compositions and nearly identical crystal and electronic structures. Such devices are of significant practical value due to their improved properties such as thermal stability. The flexible nature of Heusler materials to achieve tunable magnetizations, and anisotropies within closely matched materials provides a new direction to the growing field of antiferromagnetic spintronics.
Rashba spin-orbit splitting in the magnetic materials opens up a new perspective in the field of spintronics. Here, we report a giant Rashba-type spin-orbit effect on PrGe [010] surface in the paramagnetic phase with Rashba coefficient {alpha}_R=5 eV{AA}. Significant changes in the electronic band structure has been observed across the phase transitions from paramagnetic to antiferromagnetic (44 K) and from antiferromagnetic to the ferromagnetic ground state (41.5 K). We find that Pr 4f states in PrGe is strongly hybridized with the Pr 5d and Ge 4s-4p states near the Fermi level. The behavior of Rashba effect is found to be different in the k_x and the k_y directions showing electron-like and the hole-like bands, respectively. The possible origin of Rashba effect in the paramagnetic phase is related to the anti-parallel spin polarization present in this system. First-principles density functional calculations of Pr terminated surface with the anti-parallel spins shows a fair agreement with the experimental results. We find that the anti-parallel spins are strongly coupled to the lattice such that the PrGe system behaves like weak ferromagnetic system. Analysis of the energy dispersion curves at different magnetic phases showed that there is a competition between the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction and the exchange interaction which gives rise to the magnetic ordering in PrGe. Supporting evidences of the presence of Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction are observed as anisotropic magnetoresistance with respect to field direction and first-order type hysteresis in the X-ray diffraction measurements. A giant negative magnetoresistance of 43% in the antiferromagnetic phase and tunable Rashba parameter with temperature across the magnetic transitions makes this material a suitable candidate for technological application in the antiferromagnetic spintronic devices.
Using an electric field instead of an electric current (or a magnetic field) to tailor the electronic properties of magnetic materials is promising for realizing ultralow energy-consuming memory devices because of the suppression of Joule heating, especially when the devices are scaled to the nanoscale. In the review, we summarize recent results on the giant magnetization and resistivity modulation in a metamagnetic intermetallic alloy - FeRh, which is achieved by electric-field-controlled magnetic phase transitions in multiferroic heterostructures. Furthermore, the approach is extended to topological antiferromagnetic spintronics, which is currently receiving attention in the magnetic society, and the antiferromagnetic order parameter has been able to switch back and forth by a small electric field. In the end, we envision the possibility of manipulating exotic physical phenomena in the emerging topological antiferromagnetic spintronics field via the electric-field approach.