Orthogonal interlayer coupling in an all-antiferromagnetic junction

In conventional ferromagnet/spacer/ferromagnet sandwiches, noncollinear couplings are commonly absent because of the low coupling energy and strong magnetization. For antiferromagnets (AFM), the small net moment can embody a low coupling energy as a sizable coupling field, however, such AFM sandwich structures have been scarcely explored. Here we demonstrate orthogonal interlayer coupling at room temperature in an all-antiferromagnetic junction Fe₂O₃/Cr₂O₃/Fe₂O₃, where the Néel vectors in the top and bottom Fe₂O₃ layers are strongly orthogonally coupled and the coupling strength is significantly affected by the thickness of the antiferromagnetic Cr₂O₃ spacer. From the energy and symmetry analysis, the direct coupling via uniform magnetic ordering in Cr₂O₃ spacer in our junction is excluded. The coupling is proposed to be mediated by the non-uniform domain wall state in the spacer. The strong long-range coupling in an antiferromagnetic junction provides an unexplored approach for designing antiferromagnetic structures and makes it a promising building block for antiferromagnetic devices.