Sn deiven by spin-orbit torque*

Electrical control of magnetic materials has been of paramount interest in spintronics research, and many interesting phenomena have been revealed, leading to various opportunities of applications. Non-collinear antiferromagnet with chiral-spin structure is an attractive system showing intriguing properties that were believed to be inherent to ferromagnets such as the anomalous Hall effect [1].

This presentation shows a new scheme of the electrical control of magnetic materials, i.e., the chiral-spin rotation, observed in non-collinear antiferromagnets [2]. We use Hall-bar devices with an epitaxial stack consisting of a non-collinear antiferromagnetic Mn₃Sn and heavy metals with large spin-orbit coupling [3,4]. An unconventional response of the Hall resistance under electric current applications is observed, which can be attributed to the continuous rotation of chiral-spin structure in Mn₃Sn driven by the spin-orbit torque. We also find that the efficiency to manipulate the magnetic structure through this scheme is much higher than that in collinear ferromagnets and ferrimagnets.

 

[1] S. Nakatsuji et al., Nature 527, 212 (2015).

[2] Y. Takeuchi et al., Nature Materials 20, 1364 (2021).

[3] J.-Y. Yoon et al., Appl. Phys. Express 13, 013001 (2019)

[4] J.-Y. Yoon et al. AIP Adv. 11, 065318 (2021).