Antiferromagnetic Switching Driven by the Collective Dynamics of a Coexisting Spin Glass

Abstract

The theory behind the electrical switching of antiferromagnets is premised on the existence of a well defined broken symmetry state that can be rotated to encode information. A spin glass is in many ways the antithesis of this state, characterized by an ergodic landscape of nearly degenerate magnetic configurations, choosing to freeze into a distribution of these in a manner that is seemingly bereft of information. In this study, we show that the coexistence of spin glass and antiferromagnetic order allows a novel mechanism to facilitate the switching of the antiferromagnet Fe${}_{1/3+\delta }$NbS${}_2$, which is rooted in the electrically-stimulated collective winding of the spin glass. The local texture of the spin glass opens an anisotropic channel of interaction that can be used to rotate the equilibrium orientation of the antiferromagnetic state. The use of a spin glass' collective dynamics to electrically manipulate antiferromagnetic spin textures has never been applied before, opening the field of antiferromagnetic spintronics to many more material platforms with complex magnetic textures.

arXiv comment7 pages, 4 Figures, supplement available on reasonable request

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• Electrical switching of an antiferromagnet
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Cited by in corpus (10)

• High-Field Magnetometry with Hyperpolarized Nuclear Spins
• Composition dependence of bulk properties in the Co-intercalated transition-metal dichalcogenide Co${}_{1/3}$TaS${}_2$
• Origins of anisotropic transport in electrically-switchable antiferromagnet $\mathrm{F}{\mathrm{e}}_1/3Nb{\mathrm{S}}_2$
• Collective topological spin dynamics in a correlated spin glass
• Coupling between Antiferromagnetic and Spin Glass Orders in the Quasi-One-Dimensional Iron Telluride TaFe${}_{1+x}$Te${}_3$ ($x$=0.25)
• Ionic liquid gating of SrTiO${}_3$ lamellas fabricated with a focused ion beam
• Coexistence of Commensurate and Incommensurate Antiferromagnetic Groundstates in Co${}_x$NbSe${}_2$ Single Crystal
• Hard ferromagnetism down to the thinnest limit of iron-intercalated tantalum disulfide
• Collective spin dynamics under dissipative spin Hall torque
• Emerging magnetic nutation