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Updated: Sep 29, 2025

Optimizing Magnetic Force Microscopy Resolution and Sensitivity to Visualize Nanoscale Magnetic Domains
Published on: July 20, 2022
Photonic-Crafting of Non-Volatile and Rewritable Antiferromagnetic Spin Textures with Drastic Difference in
Chang-Yang Kuo1,2, Yi-De Liou3,4, Zhiwei Hu5
1Department of Electrophysics, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, 30010, Taiwan.
Abstract:
Antiferromagnetic spintronics is an emerging field of non-volatile data storage and information processing. The zero net magnetization and zero stray fields of antiferromagnetic materials eliminate interference between neighbor units, leading to high-density memory integrations. However, this invisible magnetic character at the same time also poses a great challenge in controlling and detecting magnetic states in antiferromagnets. Here, two antiferromagnetic spin states close in energy in strained BiFeO3 thin films at room temperature are discovered. It can be reversibly switched between these two non-volatile antiferromagnetic states by a moderate magnetic field and a non-contact optical approach. Importantly, the conductivity of the areas with each antiferromagnetic textures is drastically different. It is conclusively demonstrated the capability of optical writing and electrical reading of these newly discovered bistable antiferromagnetic states in the BiFeO3 thin films.
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