Resistive contribution in electrical switching experiments with antiferromagnets

Abstract

Recent research demonstrated the electrical switching of antiferromagnets via intrinsic spin-orbit torque or the spin Hall effect of an adjacent heavy metal layer. The electrical readout is typically realized by measuring the transverse anisotropic magnetoresistance at planar cross- or star-shaped devices with four or eight arms, respectively. Depending on the material, the current density necessary to switch the magnetic state can be large, often close to the destruction threshold of the device. We demonstrate that the resulting electrical stress changes the film resistivity locally and thereby breaks the fourfold rotational symmetry of the conductor. This symmetry breaking due to film inhomogeneity produces signals, that resemble the anisotropic magnetoresistance and is experimentally seen as a "saw-tooth"-shaped transverse resistivity. This artifact can persist over many repeats of the switching experiment and is not easily separable from the magnetic contribution. We discuss the origin of the artifact, elucidate the role of the film crystallinity, and propose approaches how to separate the resistive contribution from the magnetic contribution.

arXiv comment9 pages, 7 figures

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Cited by in corpus (16)

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• Concurrent magneto-optical imaging and magneto-transport readout of electrical switching of insulating antiferromagnetic thin films
• Observation of Vector Spin Seebeck Effect in a Noncollinear Antiferromagnet
• Antiferromagnetic insulatronics: spintronics in insulating 3d metal oxides with antiferromagnetic coupling
• Systematic study of nonmagnetic resistance changes due to electrical pulsing in single metal layers and metal/antiferromagnet bilayers
• Thermal Contribution in the Electrical Switching Experiments with Heavy Metal / Antiferromagnet Structures
• Magnetic sensitivity distribution of Hall devices in antiferromagnetic switching experiments
• Vector spin Seebeck effect and spin swapping effect in antiferromagnetic insulators with non-collinear spin structure
• Probing the Manipulation of Antiferromagnetic Order in CuMnAs Films Using Neutron Diffraction
• Disentangling electrical switching of antiferromagnetic NiO using high magnetic fields
• First-principles calculations of spin-orbit torques in Mn${}_2$Au/heavy-metal bilayers
• Electrical switching of antiferromagnetic CoO | Pt across the Néel temperature