No Arabic abstract
Antiferromagnets are robust to external electric and magnetic fields, and hence are seemingly uncontrollable. Recent studies, however, realized the electrical manipulations of antiferromagnets by virtue of the antiferromagnetic Edelstein effect. We present a general symmetry analysis of electrically switchable antiferromagnets based on group-theoretical approaches. Furthermore, we identify a direct relation between switchable antiferromagnets and the ferrotoroidic order. The concept of the ferrotoroidic order clarifies the unidirectional nature of switchable antiferromagnets and provides a criterion for the controllability of antiferromagnets. The scheme paves a way for perfect writing and reading of switchable antiferromagnets.
The charge-current-induced spin polarization is a key property of topological insulators for their applications in spintronics. However, topological surface states are expected to give rise to only one type of spin polarization for a given current direction, which has been a limiting factor for spin manipulations. Here we report that in devices based on the bulk-insulating topological insulator BiSbTeSe2, an unexpected switching of spin polarization was observed upon changing the chemical potential. The spin polarization expected from the topological surface states was detected in a heavily electron-doped device, whereas the opposite polarization was reproducibly observed in devices with low carrier densities. We propose that the latter type of spin polarization stems from topologically-trivial two-dimensional states with a large Rashba spin splitting, which are caused by a strong band bending at the surface of BiSbTeSe2 beneath the ferromagnetic electrode used as a spin detector. This finding paves the way for realizing the spin transistor operation in future topological spintronic devices.
Magnetoelectric effects in honeycomb antiferromagnet Co4Nb2O9 are investigated on the basis of symmetry analyses of Co ions in trigonal P-3c1 space group. For each Co ion, the possible spin dependence is classified by C3 point-group symmetry. This accounts for the observed main effect that an electric polarization rotates in the opposite direction at the twice speed relative to the rotation of the external magnetic field applied in the ab-plane. Inversion centers and twofold axes in the unit cell restrict the active spin-dependence of the electric polarization, which well explains the observed experimental results. Expected optical properties of quadrupolar excitation and various types of dichroism are also discussed.
We obtain the most general forms of rank-2 and rank-3 tensors allowed by the crystal symmetries of the honeycomb lattice of edge-sharing octahedra for crystals belonging to different crystallographic point groups, including the monoclinic point group $2/m$ and the trigonal (or rhombohedral) point group $bar{3}$. Our results are relevant for two-dimensional materials, such as $alpha$-RuCl$_3$, CrI$_3$, and the honeycomb iridates. We focus on the magnetic-field-dependent thermal conductivity tensor $kappa_{ij}(mathbf{H})$, which describes a systems longitudinal and thermal Hall responses, for the cases when the magnetic field is applied along high-symmetry directions, perpendicular to the plane and in the plane. We highlight some unexpected results, such as the equality of fully-longitudinal components to partially-transverse components in rank-3 tensors for systems with three-fold rotational symmetry, and make testable predictions for the thermal conductivity tensor.
We report on the switching of the in-plane magnetization of thin yttrium iron garnet (YIG)/Pt bilayers induced by an electrical current. The switching is either field-induced and assisted by a dc current, or current-induced and assisted by a static magnetic field. The reversal of the magnetization occurs at a current density as low as $10^5$~A/cm$^{2}$ and magnetic fields of $sim 40$~$mu$T, two orders of magnitude smaller than in ferromagnetic metals, consistently with the weak uniaxial anisotropy of the YIG layers. We use the transverse component of the spin Hall magnetoresistance to sense the magnetic orientation of YIG while sweeping the current. Our measurements and simulations reveal that the current-induced effective field responsible for switching is due to the Oersted field generated by the current flowing in the Pt layer rather than by spin-orbit torques, and that the switching efficiency is influenced by pinning of the magnetic domains.
We study the behaviour of the magnetization in a half-metallic ferromagnet/nonmagnetic insulator/ferromagnetic metal/paramagnetic metal (FM1/NI/FM2/PM) tunnel junction. It is calculated self-consistently within the nonequilibrium Keldysh formalism. The magnetic regions are treated as band ferromagnets and are described by the single-band Hubbard model. We developed a nonequilibrium spectral density approach to solve the Hubbard model approximately in the switching magnet. By applying a voltage to the junction it is possible to switch between antiparallel (AP) and parallel (P) alignment of the magnetizations of the two ferromagnets. The transition from AP to P occurs for positive voltages while the inverse transition from P to AP can be induced by negative voltages only. This behaviour is in agreement with the Slonczewski model of current-induced switching and appears self-consistently within the model, i.e. without using half-classical methods like the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation.