Direct Imaging of Current-Induced Antiferromagnetic Switching Revealing a Pure Thermomagnetoelastic Switching Mechanism in NiO.

We unravel the origin of current-induced magnetic switching of insulating antiferromagnet/heavy metal systems. We utilize concurrent transport and magneto-optical measurements to image the switching of antiferromagnetic domains in specially engineered devices of NiO/Pt bilayers. Different electrical pulsing and device geometries reveal different final states of the switching with respect to the current direction. We can explain these through simulations of the temperature-induced strain, and we identify the thermomagnetoelastic switching mechanism combined with thermal excitations as the origin, in which the final state is defined by the strain distributions and heat is required to switch the antiferromagnetic domains. We show that such a potentially very versatile noncontact mechanism can explain the previously reported contradicting observations of the switching final state, which were attributed to spin-orbit torque mechanisms.

Harnessing Orbital-to-Spin Conversion of Interfacial Orbital Currents for Efficient Spin-Orbit Torques.

Current-induced spin-orbit torques (SOTs) allow for the efficient electrical manipulation of magnetism in spintronic devices. Engineering the SOT efficiency is a key goal that is pursued by maximizing the active interfacial spin accumulation or modulating the nonequilibrium spin density that builds up through the spin Hall and inverse spin galvanic effects. Regardless of the origin, the fundamental requirement for the generation of the current-induced torques is a net spin accumulation. We report on the large enhancement of the SOT efficiency in thulium iron garnet (TmIG)/Pt by capping with a CuO_{x} layer. Considering the weak spin-orbit coupling (SOC) of CuO_{x}, these surprising findings likely result from an orbital current generated at the interface between CuO_{x} and Pt, which is injected into the Pt layer and converted into a spin current by strong SOC. The converted spin current decays across the Pt layer and exerts a "nonlocal" torque on TmIG. This additional torque leads to a maximum colossal enhancement of the SOT efficiency of a factor 16 for 1.5 nm of Pt at room temperature, thus opening a path to increase torques while at the same time offering insights into the underlying physics of orbital transport, which has so far been elusive.

Propagation Length of Antiferromagnetic Magnons Governed by Domain Configurations.

The compensated magnetic order and characteristic terahertz frequencies of antiferromagnetic materials make them promising candidates to develop a new class of robust, ultrafast spintronic devices. The manipulation of antiferromagnetic spin-waves in thin films is anticipated to lead to new exotic phenomena such as spin-superfluidity, requiring an efficient propagation of spin-waves in thin films. However, the reported decay length in thin films has so far been limited to a few nanometers. In this work, we achieve efficient spin-wave propagation over micrometer distances in thin films of the insulating antiferromagnet hematite with large magnetic domains while evidencing much shorter attenuation lengths in multidomain thin films. Through transport and magnetic imaging, we determine the role of the magnetic domain structure and spin-wave scattering at domain walls to govern the transport. We manipulate the spin transport by tailoring the domain configuration through field cycle training. For the appropriate crystalline orientation, zero-field spin transport is achieved across micrometers, as required for device integration.

Giant Rashba-Type Spin Splitting in Ferroelectric GeTe(111).

Photoelectron spectroscopy in combination with piezoforce microscopy reveals that the helicity of Rashba bands is coupled to the nonvolatile ferroelectric polarization of GeTe(111). A novel surface Rashba band is found and fingerprints of a bulk Rashba band are identified by comparison with density functional theory calculations.