Magnetization switching in polycrystalline Mn3Sn thin film induced by self-generated spin-polarized current

Abstract

Electrical manipulation of spins is essential to design state-of-the-art spintronic devices and commonly relies on the spin current injected from a second heavy-metal material. The fact that chiral antiferromagnets produce spin current inspires us to explore the magnetization switching of chiral spins using self-generated spin torque. Here, we demonstrate the electric switching of noncollinear antiferromagnetic state in Mn3Sn by observing a crossover from conventional spin-orbit torque to the self-generated spin torque when increasing the MgO thickness in Ta/MgO/Mn3Sn polycrystalline films. The spin current injection from the Ta layer can be controlled and even blocked by varying the MgO thickness, but the switching sustains even at a large MgO thickness. Furthermore, the switching polarity reverses when the MgO thickness exceeds around 3 nm, which cannot be explained by the spin-orbit torque scenario due to spin current injection from the Ta layer. Evident current-induced switching is also observed in MgO/Mn3Sn and Ti/Mn3Sn bilayers, where external injection of spin Hall current to Mn3Sn is negligible. The inter-grain spin-transfer torque induced by spin-polarized current explains the experimental observations. Our findings provide an alternative pathway for electrical manipulation of non-collinear antiferromagnetic state without resorting to the conventional bilayer structure.

arXiv comment29 pages, 6 figures

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• Nanoscale magnetic domains in polycrystalline Mn3Sn films imaged by a scanning single-spin magnetometer
• Intrinsic spin-orbit torque mechanism for deterministic all-electric switching of noncollinear antiferromagnets
• Spin-Transfer-Torque Induced Spatially Nonuniform Switching in Ferrimagnets
• Vector spin Seebeck effect and spin swapping effect in antiferromagnetic insulators with non-collinear spin structure
• Higher-order Hall response arises from octupole order and scalar spin chirality in a noncollinear antiferromagnet
• Interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in nonmagnetic/noncollinear-antiferromagnetic bilayers
• Nanoscale quantum imaging of field-free deterministic switching of a chiral antiferromagnet
• Orthogonal Spin-Orbit Torque-Induced Deterministic Switching in NiO
• Micromagnetic simulations for magnetic multipoles
• Strain-induced manipulation of non-collinear antiferromagnets
• Spin current symmetries generated by GdFeCo ferrimagnet across its magnetisation compensation temperature