Imaging and writing magnetic domains in the non-collinear antiferromagnet Mn3Sn

Non-collinear antiferromagnets are revealing many unexpected phenomena and they became crucial for the field of antiferromagnetic spintronics. To visualize and prepare a well-defined domain structure is of key importance. The spatial magnetic contrast, however, remains extraordinarily difficult to b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2019-11, Vol.10 (1), p.1-6, Article 5459
Main Authors: Reichlova, Helena, Janda, Tomas, Godinho, Joao, Markou, Anastasios, Kriegner, Dominik, Schlitz, Richard, Zelezny, Jakub, Soban, Zbynek, Bejarano, Mauricio, Schultheiss, Helmut, Nemec, Petr, Jungwirth, Tomas, Felser, Claudia, Wunderlich, Joerg, Goennenwein, Sebastian T. B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/301/1005/1008
639/301/119/1001
639/766/119/544
639/766/119/997
Algorithms
Antiferromagnetism
Electric fields
Heat
Humanities and Social Sciences
Lasers
Magnetic domains
Magnetic fields
Magnetism
Microscopy
multidisciplinary
Nernst-Ettingshausen effect
Physics
Room temperature
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Spatial discrimination
Spatial resolution
Spintronics
Symmetry
Temperature
Thin films
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Summary:Non-collinear antiferromagnets are revealing many unexpected phenomena and they became crucial for the field of antiferromagnetic spintronics. To visualize and prepare a well-defined domain structure is of key importance. The spatial magnetic contrast, however, remains extraordinarily difficult to be observed experimentally. Here, we demonstrate a magnetic imaging technique based on a laser induced local thermal gradient combined with detection of the anomalous Nernst effect. We employ this method in one the most actively studied representatives of this class of materials—Mn 3 Sn. We demonstrate that the observed contrast is of magnetic origin. We further show an algorithm to prepare a well-defined domain pattern at room temperature based on heat assisted recording principle. Our study opens up a prospect to study spintronics phenomena in non-collinear antiferromagnets with spatial resolution. Interpretation of the physical phenomena observed in non-collinear antiferromagnets is challenging; imaging and writing magnetic domains is important for applications. Here the authors show magnetic domain imaging and writing in a non-collinear antiferromagnet by recording anomalous Nernst voltage in response to a localized thermal gradient.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-019-13391-z