Third harmonic characterization of antiferromagnetic heterostructures

Electrical switching of antiferromagnets is an exciting recent development in spintronics, which promises active antiferromagnetic devices with high speed and low energy cost. In this emerging field, there is an active debate about the mechanisms of current-driven switching of antiferromagnets. For...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2022-06, Vol.13 (1), p.3659-3659, Article 3659
Main Authors: Cheng, Yang, Cogulu, Egecan, Resnick, Rachel D., Michel, Justin J., Statuto, Nahuel N., Kent, Andrew D., Yang, Fengyuan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/301/119/544
639/766/1130/2798
639/766/119/1001
Antiferromagnetism
Damping
Electrical properties
Energy costs
Ferric oxide
Ferromagnetism
Heavy metals
Heterostructures
Humanities and Social Sciences
Magnetic fields
Magnetization
Magnetoelastic effect
multidisciplinary
Physics
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Seebeck effect
Spintronics
Switching
Torque
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Summary:Electrical switching of antiferromagnets is an exciting recent development in spintronics, which promises active antiferromagnetic devices with high speed and low energy cost. In this emerging field, there is an active debate about the mechanisms of current-driven switching of antiferromagnets. For heavy-metal/ferromagnet systems, harmonic characterization is a powerful tool to quantify current-induced spin-orbit torques and spin Seebeck effect and elucidate current-induced switching. However, harmonic measurement of spin-orbit torques has never been verified in antiferromagnetic heterostructures. Here, we report harmonic measurements in Pt/ α -Fe 2 O 3 bilayers, which are explained by our modeling of higher-order harmonic voltages. As compared with ferromagnetic heterostructures where all current-induced effects appear in the second harmonic signals, the damping-like torque and thermally-induced magnetoelastic effect contributions in Pt/ α -Fe 2 O 3 emerge in the third harmonic voltage. Our results provide a new path to probe the current-induced magnetization dynamics in antiferromagnets, promoting the application of antiferromagnetic spintronic devices. Harmonic measurements have been used extensively in ferromagnetic/heavy metal heterostructures to characterize the magnetization dynamic; however, it has remained unclear about whether such techniques could be applied to antiferromagnetic devices. Here, Cheng et al demonstrate such a harmonic measurement approach in an antiferromagnet.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-022-31451-9