Current induced switching in Mn2Au from first principles

Abstract

It is well established that it is possible to switch certain antiferromagnets electrically, yet the interplay of Néel-spin-orbit torques and thermal activation is only poorly understood. Combining ab initio calculations and atomistic spin dynamics simulations we develop a multiscale model to study the current induced switching in Mn2Au. We compute from first principles the strength and direction of the electrically induced magnetic moments, caused by the Rashba--Edelstein effect, and take these into account in atomistic spin dynamics simulations. Our simulations reveal the switching paths as well as the time scales for switching. The size of the induced moments, however, turns out to be insufficient to lead to fully deterministic switching. Instead, we find that a certain degree of thermal activation is required to help overcoming the relevant energy barrier.

References in corpus (19)

• Antiferromagnetic spintronics
• Antiferromagnetic spintronics
• Electrical switching of an antiferromagnet
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• Quantitative comparison of electrically induced spin and orbital polarizations in heavy-metal/3d-metal bilayers
• Ultrafast coherent all-optical switching of an antiferromagnet with the inverse Faraday effect
• Reduced thermal stability of antiferromagnetic nanostructures
• Experimental determination of exchange constants in antiferromagnetic Mn${}_2$Au
• Spin accumulation from non-equilibrium first principles methods

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Current-driven writing process in antiferromagnetic Mn2Au for memory applications
• Néel-Vector Switching and THz Spin-Wave Excitation in Mn${}_2$Au due to Femtosecond Spin-Transfer Torques
• Identifying Switching of Antiferromagnets by Spin-Orbit Torques
• Competition between terahertz magnetoelectric and Néel spin-orbit torque driven spin dynamics in metallic antiferromagnets
• Terahertz spin-orbit torque as a drive of spin dynamics in the insulating antiferromagnet Cr${}_2$O${}_3$