2023/03/23 by Christin Schmitt, Schmitt, Christin, Adithya Rajan +21
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials #Magnetic properties of thin films #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2303.13308
openalex publication_date 2023/03/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/03
We study current-induced switching of the Néel vector in CoO/Pt bilayers to understand the underlaying antiferromagnetic switching mechanism. Surprisingly, we find that for ultra-thin CoO/Pt bilayers electrical pulses along the same path can lead to an increase or decrease of the spin Hall magnetoresistance signal, depending on the current density of the pulse. By comparing the results of these electrical measurements to XMLD-PEEM imaging of the antiferromagnetic domain structure before and after the application of current pulses, we reveal the reorientation of the Néel vector in ultra-thin CoO(4 nm). This allows us to determine that even opposite resistance changes can result from a thermomagnetoelastic switching mechanism. Importantly, our spatially resolved imaging shows that regions where the current pulses are applied and regions further away exhibit different switched spin structures, which can be explained by a spin-orbit torque based switching mechanism that can dominate in very thin films.