Giant anisotropic magnetoresistance and nonvolatile memory in canted antiferromagnet Sr2IrO4

Abstract

Antiferromagnets have been generating intense interest in the spintronics community, owing to their intrinsic appealing properties like zero stray field and ultrafast spin dynamics. While the control of antiferromagnetic (AFM) orders has been realized by various means, applicably appreciated functionalities on the readout side of AFM-based devices are urgently desired. Here, we report the remarkably enhanced anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) as giant as ~ 160% in a simple resistor structure made of AFM Sr2IrO4 without auxiliary reference layer. The underlying mechanism for the giant AMR is an indispensable combination of atomic scale giant-MR-like effect and magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy, which was not accessed earlier. Furthermore, we demonstrate the bistable nonvolatile memory states that can be switched in-situ without the inconvenient heat-assisted procedure, and robustly preserved even at zero magnetic field, due to the modified interlayer coupling by 1% Ga-doping in Sr2IrO4. These findings represent a straightforward step toward the AFM spintronic devices.

23 pages, 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (17)

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• Strain-engineering of the charge and spin-orbital interactions in Sr2IrO4
• 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-orbit-enhanced magnetic surface second-harmonic generation in Sr${}_2$IrO${}_4$
• Spin-flip-driven giant magneto-transport in A-type antiferromagnet NaCrTe2
• Controllable emergent spatial spin modulation in Sr2IrO4 by in situ shear strain
• Strain tuned magnetotransport of Jeff=1/2 antiferromagnetic Sr2IrO4 thin films
• Strong tuning of magnetism and electronic structure by spin orientation
• Emergent interlayer magnetic order via strain-induced orthorhombic distortion in the 5d Mott insulator Sr2IrO4
• Magnetic phases for two $t_{2g}$ holes with spin-orbit coupling and crystal field
• Anisotropic magnetotransport in the layered antiferromagnet TaFe${}_{1.25}$Te${}_3$
• Epitaxial growth and antiferromagnetism of Sn-substituted perovskite iridate SrIr${}_{0.8}$Sn${}_{0.2}$O${}_3$
• Four-fold Anisotropic Magnetoresistance in Antiferromagnetic Epitaxial Thin Films of MnPt${}_x$Pd${}_{1-x}$
• Even-in-magnetic field part of transverse resistivity as a probe of magnetic transitions
• Structural origin of the Jeff=1/2 antiferromagnetic phase in Ga-doped Sr2IrO4
• Theory of polarization-switchable electrical conductivity anisotropy in nonpolar semiconductors