Electrical manipulation of a topological antiferromagnetic state
Top Cited Papers
- 1 April 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature
- Vol. 580 (7805), 608-+
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2211-2
Abstract
Room-temperature electrical switching of a topological antiferromagnetic state in polycrystalline Mn3Sn thin films is demonstrated using the same protocol as that used for conventional ferromagnetic metals. Electrical manipulation of phenomena generated by nontrivial band topology is essential for the development of next-generation technology using topological protection. A Weyl semimetal is a three-dimensional gapless system that hosts Weyl fermions as low-energy quasiparticles(1-4). It has various exotic properties, such as a large anomalous Hall effect (AHE) and chiral anomaly, which are robust owing to the topologically protected Weyl nodes(1-16). To manipulate such phenomena, a magnetic version of Weyl semimetals would be useful for controlling the locations of Weyl nodes in the Brillouin zone. Moreover, electrical manipulation of antiferromagnetic Weyl metals would facilitate the use of antiferromagnetic spintronics to realize high-density devices with ultrafast operation(17,18). However, electrical control of a Weyl metal has not yet been reported. Here we demonstrate the electrical switching of a topological antiferromagnetic state and its detection by the AHE at room temperature in a polycrystalline thin film(19) of the antiferromagnetic Weyl metal Mn3Sn9,10,12,20, which exhibits zero-field AHE. Using bilayer devices composed of Mn3Sn and nonmagnetic metals, we find that an electrical current density of about 10(10) to 10(11) amperes per square metre induces magnetic switching in the nonmagnetic metals, with a large change in Hall voltage. In addition, the current polarity along the bias field and the sign of the spin Hall angle of the nonmagnetic metals-positive for Pt (ref. (21)), close to 0 for Cu and negative for W (ref. (22))-determines the sign of the Hall voltage. Notably, the electrical switching in the antiferromagnet is achieved with the same protocol as that used for ferromagnetic metals(23,24). Our results may lead to further scientific and technological advances in topological magnetism and antiferromagnetic spintronics.This publication has 64 references indexed in Scilit:
- Weyl and Dirac semimetals in three-dimensional solidsReviews of Modern Physics, 2018
- Large anomalous Nernst effect at room temperature in a chiral antiferromagnetNature Physics, 2017
- Large anomalous Hall effect in a non-collinear antiferromagnet at room temperatureNature, 2015
- Evidence for the chiral anomaly in the Dirac semimetal Na 3 BiScience, 2015
- Optical Gyrotropy from Axion Electrodynamics in Momentum SpacePhysical Review Letters, 2015
- Chiral anomaly and classical negative magnetoresistance of Weyl metalsPhysical Review B, 2013
- Weyl Semimetal in a Topological Insulator MultilayerPhysical Review Letters, 2011
- Quantum Hall effects in a Weyl semimetal: Possible application in pyrochlore iridatesPhysical Review B, 2011
- Topological semimetal and Fermi-arc surface states in the electronic structure of pyrochlore iridatesPhysical Review B, 2011
- The Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomaly and Weyl fermions in a crystalPhysics Letters B, 1983