In:
Nature Communications, Springer Science and Business Media LLC, Vol. 13, No. 1 ( 2022-06-28)
Abstract:
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 Fe 2 O 3 /Cr 2 O 3 /Fe 2 O 3 , where the Néel vectors in the top and bottom Fe 2 O 3 layers are strongly orthogonally coupled and the coupling strength is significantly affected by the thickness of the antiferromagnetic Cr 2 O 3 spacer. From the energy and symmetry analysis, the direct coupling via uniform magnetic ordering in Cr 2 O 3 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.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
2041-1723
DOI:
10.1038/s41467-022-31531-w
Language:
English
Publisher:
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Publication Date:
2022
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2553671-0