No Arabic abstract
We investigate magnetic domain walls in a single fcc Mn layer on Re(0001) employing spin-polarized STM, atom manipulation, and spin dynamics simulations. The low symmetry of the row-wise antiferromagnetic (1Q) state leads to a new type of domain wall which connects rotational 1Q domains by a transient 2Q state with characteristic 90$^circ$ angles between neighboring magnetic moments. The domain wall properties depend on their orientation and their width of about 2 nm essentially results from a balance of Heisenberg and higher-order exchange interactions. Atom manipulation allows domain wall imaging with atomic spin-resolution, as well as domain wall positioning, and we demonstrate that the force to move an atom is anisotropic on the 1Q domain.
We consider a domain wall in the mesoscopic quasi-one-dimensional sample (wire or stripe) of weakly anisotropic two-sublattice antiferromagnet, and estimate the probability of tunneling between two domain wall states with different chirality. Topological effects forbid tunneling for the systems with half-integer spin S of magnetic atoms which consist of odd number of chains N. External magnetic field yields an additional contribution to the Berry phase, resulting in the appearance of two different tunnel splittings in any experimental setup involving a mixture of odd and even N, and in oscillating field dependence of the tunneling rate with the period proportional to 1/N.
Antiferromagnets offer remarkable promise for future spintronics devices, where antiferromagnetic order is exploited to encode information. The control and understanding of antiferromagnetic domain walls (DWs) - the interfaces between domains with differing order parameter orientations - is a key ingredient for advancing such antiferromagnetic spintronics technologies. However, studies of the intrinsic mechanics of individual antiferromagnetic DWs remain elusive since they require sufficiently pure materials and suitable experimental approaches to address DWs on the nanoscale. Here we nucleate isolated, 180{deg} DWs in a single-crystal of Cr$_2$O$_3$, a prototypical collinear magnetoelectric antiferromagnet, and study their interaction with topographic features fabricated on the sample. We demonstrate DW manipulation through the resulting, engineered energy landscape and show that the observed interaction is governed by the DWs elastic properties. Our results advance the understanding of DW mechanics in antiferromagnets and suggest a novel, topographically defined memory architecture based on antiferromagnetic DWs.
An antiferromagnetic domain wall in a thermal gradient is found to experience a force towards colder regions upon the application of a uniform magnetic field along the easy axis. This force increases with the strength of the applied field and, for sufficiently high values, it overcomes the entropic force the that pushes wall towards the hotter regions. The force is proportional to the thermal gradient and it shows a linear dependence with the net magnetic moment of the domain wall induced by the field. The origin of this force lies on the increase of the domain wall reflectivity due the field-induced sizable break of antiferromagnetic order inside it, which turns it into an efficient barrier for magnons, which transfer linear momentum to the domain wall when they are reflected on it
In Mn$_3$X (X=Sn, Ge) antiferromagnets domain walls are thick and remarkably complex because of the non-collinear arrangement of spins in each domain. A planar Hall effect (PHE), an electric field perpendicular to the applied current but parallel to the applied magnetic field, was recently observed inside the hysteresis loop of Mn$_3$Sn. The sign of the PHE displayed a memory tuned by the prior orientation of the magnetic field and its history. We present a study of PHE in Mn$_3$Ge extended from room temperature down to 2 K and show that this memory effect can be manipulated by either magnetic field or thermal cycling. We show that the memory can be wiped out if the prior magnetic field exceeds 0.8 T or when the temperature exceeds $T_mathrm{N}$. We also find a detectable difference between the amplitude of PHE with zero-field and field thermal cycling. The ratio between the PHE and the anomalous Hall effect (AHE) decreases slightly as temperature is increased from 2 K to $T_{rm{N}}$, tracks the temperature dependence of magnetization. This erasable memory effect may be used for data storage.
The control of domain walls or spin textures is crucial for spintronic applications of antiferromagnets. Despite many efforts, it has been challenging to directly visualize antiferromagnetic domains or domain walls with nanoscale resolution, especially in magnetic field. Here, we report magnetic imaging of domain walls in several uniaxial antiferromagnets, the topological insulator MnBi$_2$Te$_4$ family and the Dirac semimetal EuMnBi$_2$, using cryogenic magnetic force microscopy (MFM). Our MFM results reveal higher magnetic susceptibility or net moments inside the domain walls than in domains. Domain walls in these antiferromagnets form randomly with strong thermal and magnetic field dependences. The direct visualization of domain walls and domain structure in magnetic field will not only facilitate the exploration of intrinsic phenomena in topological antiferromagnets, but also open a new path toward control and manipulation of domain walls or spin textures in functional antiferromagnets.