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Visualizing Uniaxial-strain Manipulation of Antiferromagnetic Domains in Fe1+YTe Using a Spin-polarized Scanning Tunneling Microscope
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Room-temperature tetragonal non-collinear Heusler antiferromagnet Pt2MnGa
Sanjay Singh1, S W D'Souza1, J Nayak1
1Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Nöthnitzer Str. 40, Dresden D-01187, Germany.
Nature Communications
|August 27, 2016
Summary
Researchers discovered a new room-temperature non-collinear antiferromagnet, Pt2MnGa. This material exhibits helical magnetic order, offering potential for novel non-volatile magnetic memory devices.
Area of Science:
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Materials Science
- Spintronics
Background:
- Antiferromagnetic spintronics is an emerging field for magnetic storage.
- Current applications often focus on collinear antiferromagnets.
- Bi-stable helical order is rare due to fixed helicity by Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore alternative mechanisms for magnetic storage beyond collinear antiferromagnets.
- To investigate non-collinear magnetic order in the tetragonal Heusler group.
- To identify materials with tunable helical order for potential memory applications.
Main Methods:
- Neutron diffraction to characterize magnetic structure.
- Ab-initio calculations to determine magnetic interactions and anisotropy.
- Analysis of energy barriers for switching between helical states.
Main Results:
- Discovery of a non-collinear, room-temperature antiferromagnet, Pt2MnGa.
- Observation of a long-period helix propagating along the tetragonal axis.
- Identification of pure exchange origin and large basal plane magnetocrystalline anisotropy driving helical character.
Conclusions:
- Pt2MnGa exhibits a small energy barrier between left- and right-handed helical states.
- The material's properties can be manipulated by magnetic pulses.
- Pt2MnGa is a promising candidate for non-volatile magnetic memory applications.
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