Optical read-out of the Néel vector in metallic antiferromagnet Mn${}_2$Au

Abstract

Metallic antiferromagnets with broken inversion symmetry on the two sublattices, strong spin-orbit coupling and high Néel temperatures offer new opportunities for applications in spintronics. Especially Mn${}_2$Au, with high Néel temperature and conductivity, is particularly interesting for real-world applications. Here, manipulation of the orientation of the staggered magnetization,\textit{\ i.e.} the Néel vector, by current pulses has been recently demonstrated, with the read-out limited to studies of anisotropic magnetoresistance or X-ray magnetic linear dichroism. Here, we report on the in-plane reflectivity anisotropy of Mn${}_2$Au (001) films, which were Néel vector aligned in pulsed magnetic fields. In the near-infrared, the anisotropy is $\approx$ 0.6\%, with higher reflectivity for the light polarized along the Néel vector. The observed magnetic linear dichroism is about four times larger than the anisotropic magnetoresistance. This suggests the dichroism in Mn${}_2$Au is a result of the strong spin-orbit interactions giving rise to anisotropy of interband optical transitions, in-line with recent studies of electronic band-structure. The considerable magnetic linear dichroism in the near-infrared could be used for ultrafast optical read-out of the Néel vector in Mn${}_2$Au.

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• Emergent phase transition in Cluster Ising model with dissipation
• Cavity-renormalized quantum criticality in a honeycomb bilayer antiferromagnet
• Direct Observation of Antiferromagnetic Parity Violation in the Electronic Structure of Mn${}_2$Au
• Switching the Magnetization in Quantum Antiferromagnets
• Giant Magneto-Optical Schäfer-Hubert Effect in Two-Dimensional van der Waals Antiferromagnets \textit{M}PS${}_3$ (\textit{M}=Mn, Fe, Ni)
• Magnetic parity violation and parity-time-reversal-symmetric magnets
• Magnetism-induced second-order nonlinear optical responses in multiferroic BiFeO${}_3$
• Switching magnetization of quantum antiferromagnets: Schwinger boson mean-field theory compared to exact diagonalization
• Ultrafast electron-phonon scattering in antiferromagnetic Dirac semimetals