Concurrent magneto-optical imaging and magneto-transport readout of electrical switching of insulating antiferromagnetic thin films

Abstract

We demonstrate stable and reversible current induced switching of large-area ($>100\mu m^2$) antiferromagnetic domains in NiO/Pt by performing concurrent transport and magneto-optical imaging measurements in an adapted Kerr microscope. By correlating the magnetic images of the antiferromagnetic domain changes and magneto-transport signal response in these current-induced switching experiments, we disentangle magnetic and non-magnetic contributions to the transport signal. Our table-top approach establishes a robust procedure to subtract the non-magnetic contributions in the transport signal and extract the spin-Hall magnetoresistance response associated with the switching of the antiferromagnetic domains enabling one to deduce details of the antiferromagnetic switching from simple transport measurements.

arXiv comment12+2 pages, 3+2 figures, V2: Corrected equation for R_transv calculation, results unaffected

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Cited by in corpus (13)

• Direct imaging of current-induced antiferromagnetic switching revealing a pure thermomagnetoelastic switching mechanism
• Observation of current-induced switching in non-collinear antiferromagnetic IrMn${}_3$ by differential voltage measurements
• Identification of Néel vector orientation in antiferromagnetic domains switched by currents in NiO/Pt thin films
• Concurrent magneto-optical imaging and magneto-transport readout of electrical switching of insulating antiferromagnetic thin films
• Antiferromagnetic insulatronics: spintronics in insulating 3d metal oxides with antiferromagnetic coupling
• Optical read-out of the Néel vector in metallic antiferromagnet Mn${}_2$Au
• Ultrafast reorientation of the Néel vector in antiferromagnetic Dirac semimetals
• 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
• Identifiying the domain wall spin structure in current-induced switching of antiferromagnetic NiO/Pt
• Magnetic sensitivity distribution of Hall devices in antiferromagnetic switching experiments
• Quadratic magneto-optical Kerr effect spectroscopy: Polarization variation method for investigation of magnetic and magneto-optical anisotropies
• First-principles calculations of spin-orbit torques in Mn${}_2$Au/heavy-metal bilayers