Electrical Switching of Tristate Antiferromagnetic Néel Order in α-Fe_{2}O_{3} Epitaxial Films.

ABSTRACT

We demonstrate nondecaying, steplike electrical switching of tristate Néel order in Pt/α-Fe_{2}O_{3} bilayers detected by the spin-Hall induced anomalous Hall effect. The as-grown Pt/α-Fe_{2}O_{3} bilayers exhibit sawtooth switching behavior generated by current pulses. After annealing by a high pulse current, the Hall signals reveal single-pulse saturated, nondecaying, steplike switching. Together with control experiments, we show that the sawtooth switching is due to an artifact of Pt while the actual spin-orbit torque induced antiferromagnetic switching is steplike. Our Monte Carlo simulations explain the switching behavior of α-Fe_{2}O_{3} Néel order among three in-plane easy axes.