Antiferromagnetic insulatronics: Spintronics in insulating 3d metal oxides with antiferromagnetic coupling

Antiferromagnetic transition metal oxides are an established and widely studied materials system in the context of spin-based electronics, commonly used as passive elements in exchange bias-based memory devices. Currently, major interest has resurged due to the recent observation of long-distance spin transport, current-induced switching, and THz emission. As a result, insulating transition metal oxides are now considered to be attractive candidates for active elements in future spintronic devices. Here, we discuss some of the most promising materials systems and highlight recent advances in reading and writing antiferromagnetic ordering. This article aims to provide an overview of the current research and potential future directions in the field of antiferromagnetic insulatronics.

Citation

Meer, H., Gomonay, O., Wittmann, A., & Kläui, M. (2023). Antiferromagnetic insulatronics: Spintronics in insulating 3d metal oxides with antiferromagnetic coupling. Applied Physics Letters, 122(8), 080502. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0135079

Sponsors

M.K. thanks the IEEE Magnetics Society for support as a Distinguished Lecturer. Discussion with colleagues during the Distinguished Lecturer Tour has allowed many of the ideas and concepts presented here to be refined and further developed. M.K. acknowledges financial support from the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Commission under FETOpen Grant Agreement No. 863155 (s-Nebula). All authors from Mainz also acknowledge support from MaHoJeRo (DAAD Spintronics network, Project Nos. 57334897 and 57524834) and KAUST (No. OSR-2019-CRG8–4048.2). The work including the Mainz-Trondheim collaboration was additionally supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence funding scheme, Project No. 262633 “QuSpin.” The authors thank the German Research Foundation (SFB TRR 173 Spin+X 268565370 projects A01, B02, A11, B12, B14; TRR 288—422213477 (project A09) and project DFG No. 423441604), and O.G. additionally acknowledges support from the ERC Synergy Grant SC2 (No. 610115) and EU FET Open RIA under Grant no. 766566. We thank A. Ross for helpful discussions