Effective strain manipulation of the antiferromagnetic state of polycrystalline NiO

Barra A, Ross A, Gomonay O, Baldrati L, Chavez A, Lebrun R, Schneider JD, Shirazi P, Wang Q, Sinova J, Carman GP, Klaeui M (2021)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2021

Journal

Applied Physics Letters American Institute of Physics (AIP)

Book Volume: 118

Article Number: 172408

Journal Issue: 17

DOI: 10.1063/5.0046255

Abstract

As a candidate material for applications such as magnetic memory, polycrystalline antiferromagnets offer the same robustness to external magnetic fields, THz spin dynamics, and lack of stray fields as their single crystalline counterparts, but without the limitation of epitaxial growth and lattice matched substrates. Here, we first report the detection of the average Néel vector orientation in polycrystalline NiO via spin Hall magnetoresistance (SMR). Second, by applying strain through a piezo-electric substrate, we reduce the critical magnetic field required to reach a saturation of the SMR signal, indicating a change of the anisotropy. Our results are consistent with polycrystalline NiO exhibiting a positive sign of the in-plane magnetostriction. This method of anisotropy-tuning offers an energy efficient, on-chip alternative to manipulate a polycrystalline antiferromagnet's magnetic state.

Involved external institutions

University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) US United States (USA) (US) Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (JGU) DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Barra, A., Ross, A., Gomonay, O., Baldrati, L., Chavez, A., Lebrun, R.,... Klaeui, M. (2021). Effective strain manipulation of the antiferromagnetic state of polycrystalline NiO. Applied Physics Letters, 118(17). https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0046255

MLA:

Barra, A., et al. "Effective strain manipulation of the antiferromagnetic state of polycrystalline NiO." Applied Physics Letters 118.17 (2021).

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