2025/05/28 by Jingcheng Zhou, Zhou, Jingcheng, Senlei Li +23 · 1 citation
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #2D Materials and Applications #FOS: Physical sciences #Magnetic properties of thin films #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Topological Materials and Phenomena
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2505.22856
openalex publication_date 2025/05/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Recently, unconventional spin-orbit torques (SOTs) with tunable spin generation open new pathways for designing novel magnetization control for cutting-edge spintronics innovations. A leading research thrust is to develop field-free deterministic magnetization switching for implementing scalable and energy favorable magnetic recording and storage applications, which have been demonstrated in conventional ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic material systems. Here we extend this advanced magnetization control strategy to chiral antiferromagnet Mn3Sn using spin currents with out-of-plane canted polarization generated from low-symmetry van der Waals (vdW) material WTe2. Numerical calculations suggest that damping-like SOT of spins injected perpendicular to the kagome plane of Mn3Sn serves as a driving force to rotate the chiral magnetic order, while the field-like SOT of spin currents with polarization parallel to the kagome plane provides the bipolar deterministicity to the magnetic switching. We further introduce scanning quantum microscopy to visualize nanoscale evolutions of Mn3Sn magnetic domains during the field-free switching process, corroborating the exceptionally large magnetic switching ratio up to 90%. Our results highlight the opportunities provided by hybrid SOT material platforms consisting of noncollinear antiferromagnets and low-symmetry vdW spin source materials for developing next-generation, transformative spintronic logic devices.