All-in-all-out magnetic domain wall conduction in pyrochlore iridate heterointerface

TL;DR

This study reports the experimental observation of metallic conduction at magnetic domain walls in pyrochlore iridate heterointerfaces, revealing a new surface state linked to all-in-all-out magnetic ordering.

Contribution

It demonstrates controllable creation and detection of metallic conduction at magnetic domain walls in pyrochlore iridates, advancing understanding of emergent surface states in complex oxides.

Findings

Metallic conduction observed at magnetic domain walls.

Control of domain walls via lanthanide ion magnetoresponse.

Detection of anomalous conduction with ferroic hysteresis.

Abstract

Pyrochlore oxides possessing "all-in-all-out" spin ordering have attracted burgeoning interest as a rich ground of emergent states. This ordering has two distinct types of magnetic domains (all-in-all-out or all-out-all-in) with broken time-reversal symmetry, and a non-trivial metallic surface state has been theoretically demonstrated to appear at their domain wall. Here, we report on observation of this metallic conduction at the single all-in-all-out/all-out-all-in magnetic domain wall formed at the heterointerface of two pyrochlore iridates. By utilizing different magnetoresponses of them with different lanthanide ions, the domain wall is controllably inserted at the heterointerface, the surface state being detected as anomalous conduction enhancement with a ferroic hysteresis. Our establishment paves the way for further investigation and manipulation of this new type of surface transport.