Nanomagnetism of magnetoelectric granular thin-film antiferromagnets

Abstract

Antiferromagnets have recently emerged as attractive platforms for spintronics applications, offering fundamentally new functionalities compared to their ferromagnetic counterparts. While nanoscale thin film materials are key to the development of future antiferromagnetic spintronics technologies, experimental tools to explore such films on the nanoscale are still sparse. Here, we offer a solution to this technological bottleneck, by addressing the ubiquitous surface magnetisation of magnetoelectic antiferromagnets in a granular thin film sample on the nanoscale using single-spin magnetometry in combination with spin-sensitive transport experiments. Specifically, we quantitatively image the evolution of individual nanoscale antiferromagnetic domains in 200-nm thin-films of Cr${}_2$O${}_3$ in real space and across the paramagnet-to-antiferromagnet phase transition. These experiments allow us to discern key properties of the Cr${}_2$O${}_3$ thin film, including the mechanism of domain formation and the strength of exchange coupling between individual grains comprising the film. Our work offers novel insights into Cr${}_2$O${}_3$'s magnetic ordering mechanism and establishes single spin magnetometry as a novel, widely applicable tool for nanoscale addressing of antiferromagnetic thin films.

arXiv comment22 pages, 7 figures

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• Minimizing sensor-sample distances in scanning nitrogen-vacancy magnetometry
• Quantum magnetometry of transient signals with a time resolution of 1.1 nanoseconds
• Reconstruction-free quantum sensing of arbitrary waveforms
• Characterizing and Overcoming Surface Paramagnetism in Magnetoelectric Antiferromagnets
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• Imaging Local Effects of Voltage and Boron Doping on Spin Reversal in Antiferromagnetic Magnetoelectric Cr2O3 Thin Films and Devices
• Multi-Angle Reconstruction of Domain Morphology with All-Optical Diamond Magnetometry
• Antiferromagnetic nanoscale bit arrays of magnetoelectric Cr${}_2$O${}_3$ thin films
• Tunable magnetic field source for magnetic field imaging microscopy
• Quadratic magnetoelectric effect during field cooling in sputter grown Cr${}_2$O${}_3$ films