Revealing Controllable Anisotropic Magnetoresistance in Spin Orbit Coupled Antiferromagnet Sr2IrO4

Abstract

Antiferromagnetic spintronics actively introduces new principles of magnetic memory, in which the most fundamental spin-dependent phenomena, i.e. anisotropic magnetoresistance effects, are governed by an antiferromagnet instead of a ferromagnet. A general scenario of the antiferromagnetic anisotropic magnetoresistance effects mainly stems from the magnetocrystalline anisotropy related to spin-orbit coupling. Here we demonstrate magnetic field driven contour rotation of the fourfold anisotropic magnetoresistance in bare antiferromagnetic Sr2IrO4/SrTiO3 (001) thin films hosting a strong spin-orbit coupling induced Jeff=1/2 Mott state. Concurrently, an intriguing minimal in the magnetoresistance emerges. Through first principles calculations, the band-gap engineering due to rotation of the Ir isospins is revealed to be responsible for these emergent phenomena, different from the traditional scenario where relatively more conductive state was obtained usually when magnetic field was applied along the magnetic easy axis. Our findings demonstrate a new efficient route, i.e. via the novel Jeff=1/2 state, to realize controllable anisotropic magnetoresistance in antiferromagnetic materials.

References in corpus (20)

• Antiferromagnetic spintronics
• Mott Insulators in the Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling Limit: From Heisenberg to a Quantum Compass and Kitaev Models
• Novel Jeff = 1/2 Mott State Induced by Relativistic Spin-Orbit Coupling in Sr2IrO4
• Electrical switching of an antiferromagnet
• Room-temperature antiferromagnetic memory resistor
• Multiple-stable anisotropic magnetoresistance memory in antiferromagnetic MnTe
• The magnetic and crystal structures of Sr2IrO4: A neutron diffraction study
• Engineering spin-orbital magnetic insulator by tailoring superlattices
• Lattice-Driven Magnetoresistivity and Metal-Insulator Transition in Single-Layered Iridates
• Anisotropic magnetoresistance in antiferromagnetic semiconductor Sr2IrO4 epitaxial heterostructure
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• Robustness of basal-plane antiferromagnetic order and the $J_{eff}=1/2$ state in single-layer iridate spin-orbit Mott insulators
• Slaving of the magnetic moment canting to the correlated oxygen rotation in Sr2IrO4 revealed by X-ray resonant scattering
• Neutron scattering study of correlated phase behavior in Sr2IrO4
• Crossover of conduction mechanism in Sr2IrO4 epitaxial thin films
• Compensated ferrimagnetic tetragonal Heusler thin films for antiferromagnetic spintronics
• Spin and Orbital Contributions to Magnetically Ordered Moments in 5d Layered Perovskite Sr2IrO4
• Dual gate control of bulk transport and magnetism in the spin-orbit insulator Sr2IrO4
• Isothermal anisotropic magnetoresistance in antiferromagnetic metallic IrMn
• Unveiling the Origin of the Basal-plane Antiferromagnetism in the Jeff=1/2 Mott Insulator Ba2IrO4: A Density Functional and Model Hamiltonian Study

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Spin direction controlled electronic band structure in two dimensional ferromagnetic CrI3
• Antiferromagnetic Piezospintronics
• Giant anisotropic magnetoresistance and nonvolatile memory in canted antiferromagnet Sr2IrO4
• Spin flop and crystalline anisotropic magnetoresistance in CuMnAs
• The Jeff=1/2 antiferromagnet Sr2IrO4: A golden avenue toward new physics and functions
• Magneto-optical Kerr effect and magnetoelasticity in weak ferromagnetic RuF${}_4$ monolayer
• Spin-flip-driven giant magneto-transport in A-type antiferromagnet NaCrTe2
• Anomalous Magnetoresistance due to Longitudinal Spin Fluctuations in a Jeff = 1/2 Mott Semiconductor
• Flexomagnetoelectric effect in Sr2IrO4 thin films
• Persistent large anisotropic magnetoresistance and insulator to metal transition in spin-orbit coupled antiferromagnets Sr2(Ir1-xGax)O4
• Strong tuning of magnetism and electronic structure by spin orientation
• Controllable dispersion of domain wall movement in antiferromagnetic thin films at finite temperatures
• Structural origin of the Jeff=1/2 antiferromagnetic phase in Ga-doped Sr2IrO4