Defect-driven antiferromagnetic domain walls in CuMnAs films

Abstract

Efficient manipulation of antiferromagnetic (AF) domains and domain walls has opened up new avenues of research towards ultrafast, high-density spintronic devices. AF domain structures are known to be sensitive to magnetoelastic effects, but the microscopic interplay of crystalline defects, strain and magnetic ordering remains largely unknown. Here, we reveal, using photoemission electron microscopy combined with scanning X-ray diffraction imaging and micromagnetic simulations, that the AF domain structure in CuMnAs thin films is dominated by nanoscale structural twin defects. We demonstrate that microtwin defects, which develop across the entire thickness of the film and terminate on the surface as characteristic lines, determine the location and orientation of 180 degree and 90 degree domain walls. The results emphasize the crucial role of nanoscale crystalline defects in determining the AF domains and domain walls, and provide a route to optimizing device performance.

References in corpus (6)

• Imaging current-induced switching of antiferromagnetic domains in CuMnAs
• Imaging of current induced Néel vector switching in antiferromagnetic Mn${}_2$Au
• Atomically sharp domain walls in an antiferromagnet
• Magneto-Seebeck microscopy of domain switching in collinear antiferromagnet CuMnAs
• Molecular beam epitaxy of CuMnAs
• Origin and tailoring of the antiferromagnetic domain structure in $\alpha$-Fe${}_2$O${}_3$ thin films unraveled by statistical analysis of dichroic spectro-microscopy (X-PEEM) images

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• Coexistence of Antiferromagnetic Cubic and Ferromagnetic Tetragonal Polymorphs in Epitaxial CuMnSb
• Magnetic aftereffect and Barkhausen effect in thin films of the altermagnetic candidate Mn5Si3