Strain-induced shape anisotropy in antiferromagnetic structures

Meer H, Gomonay O, Schmitt C, Ramos R, Schnitzspan L, Kronast F, Mawass MA, Valencia S, Saitoh E, Sinova J, Baldrati L, Kläui M (2022)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2022

Journal

Physical Review B American Physical Society

Book Volume: 106

Article Number: 094430

Journal Issue: 9

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.106.094430

Abstract

We demonstrate how shape-dependent strain can be used to control antiferromagnetic order in NiO/Pt thin films. For rectangular elements patterned along the easy and hard magnetocrystalline anisotropy axes of our film, we observe different domain structures and we identify magnetoelastic interactions that are distinct for different domain configurations. We reproduce the experimental observations by modeling the magnetoelastic interactions, considering spontaneous strain induced by the domain configuration, as well as elastic strain due to the substrate and the shape of the patterns. This allows us to demonstrate and explain how the variation of the aspect ratio of rectangular elements can be used to control the antiferromagnetic ground-state domain configuration. Shape-dependent strain does not only need to be considered in the design of antiferromagnetic devices, but can potentially be used to tailor their properties, providing an additional handle to control antiferromagnets.

Involved external institutions

Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (JGU) DE Germany (DE) Tohoku University JP Japan (JP) Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (HZB) DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Meer, H., Gomonay, O., Schmitt, C., Ramos, R., Schnitzspan, L., Kronast, F.,... Kläui, M. (2022). Strain-induced shape anisotropy in antiferromagnetic structures. Physical Review B, 106(9). https://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.106.094430

MLA:

Meer, Hendrik, et al. "Strain-induced shape anisotropy in antiferromagnetic structures." Physical Review B 106.9 (2022).

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