Electrical switching of an antiferromagnet

Wadley, P.; Howells, B.; Železný, Jakub; Andrews, C.; Hills, V.; Campion, R. P.; Novák, V.; Olejník, K.; Maccherozzi, F.; Dhesi, S. S.; Martin, S. Y.; Wagner, Thomas; Wunderlich, J.; Freimuth, Frank; Mokrousov, Yuriy; Kuneš, J.; Chauhan, Jasbinder; Grzybowski, M. J.; Rushforth, A. W.; Edmonds, K. W.; Gallagher, B. L.; Jungwirth, T.

doi:10.1126/science.aab1031

articleScienceJan 15, 2016GREEN OA

Electrical switching of an antiferromagnet

PWP. Wadley BHB. Howells JŽJakub Železný CAC. Andrews VHV. Hills

University of Nottingham · Czech Academy of Sciences · +7 more institutions

PubMed

Indexed inarxivcrossrefpubmed

Abstract

Antiferromagnets are hard to control by external magnetic fields because of the alternating directions of magnetic moments on individual atoms and the resulting zero net magnetization. However, relativistic quantum mechanics allows for generating current-induced internal fields whose sign alternates with the periodicity of the antiferromagnetic lattice. Using these fields, which couple strongly to the antiferromagnetic order, we demonstrate room-temperature electrical switching between stable configurations in antiferromagnetic CuMnAs thin-film devices by applied current with magnitudes of order 10(6) ampere per square centimeter. Electrical writing is combined in our solid-state memory with electrical readout…

Citation impact

1,469

total citations

FWCI: 88.99
Percentile: 100%
References: 37

Citations per year

Authors

22

Topics & keywords

Topics

Keywords

Antiferromagnetism
Condensed matter physics
Materials science
Business
Physics

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Affordable and clean energy

No related works found for this paper.