Current-polarity dependent manipulation of antiferromagnetic domains

Understand

Antiferromagnets have a number of favourable properties as active elements in spintronic devices, including ultra-fast dynamics, zero stray fields and insensitivity to external magnetic fields .

• Tetragonal CuMnAs is a testbed system in which the antiferromagnetic order parameter can be switched reversibly at ambient conditions using electrical currents .
• In previous experiments, orthogonal in-plane current pulses were used to induce 90 degree rotations of antiferromagnetic domains and demonstrate the operation of all-electrical memory bits in a multi-terminal geometry .
• Here, we demonstrate that antiferromagnetic domain walls can be manipulated to realize stable and reproducible domain changes using only two electrical contacts.