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Updated: Sep 4, 2025

Visualizing Uniaxial-strain Manipulation of Antiferromagnetic Domains in Fe1+YTe Using a Spin-polarized Scanning Tunneling Microscope
Published on: March 24, 2019
Control of Néel Vector with Spin-Orbit Torques in an Antiferromagnetic Insulator with Tilted Easy Plane
Pengxiang Zhang1, Chung-Tao Chou1,2, Hwanhui Yun3
1Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Abstract:
Injecting spin currents into antiferromagnets and realizing efficient spin-orbit-torque switching represents a challenging topic. Because of the diminishing magnetic susceptibility, current-induced antiferromagnetic dynamics remain poorly characterized, complicated by spurious effects. Here, by growing a thin film antiferromagnet, α-Fe_{2}O_{3}, along its nonbasal plane orientation, we realize a configuration where the spin-orbit torque from an injected spin current can unambiguously rotate and switch the Néel vector within the tilted easy plane, with an efficiency comparable to that of classical ferrimagnetic insulators. Our study introduces a new platform for quantitatively characterizing switching and oscillation dynamics in antiferromagnets.
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