Spin-transport, spin-torque and memory in antiferromagnetic devices: Part of a collection of reviews on antiferromagnetic spintronics

TL;DR

This review discusses recent advances in antiferromagnetic spintronics, highlighting their potential for fast, robust, and multilevel memory devices based on spin-transport and spin-torque phenomena.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the latest experimental and theoretical developments in antiferromagnetic spintronics for memory applications.

Findings

Electrical switching of Néel order demonstrated

Antiferromagnetic devices exhibit multilevel memory potential

Switching speeds surpass ferromagnetic and semiconductor technologies

Abstract

Ferromagnets are key materials for sensing and memory applications. In contrast, antiferromagnets that represent the more common form of magnetically ordered materials, have so far found less practical application beyond their use for establishing reference magnetic orientations via exchange bias. This might change in the future due to the recent progress in materials research and discoveries of antiferromagnetic spintronic phenomena suitable for device applications. Experimental demonstrations of the electrical switching and electrical detection of the N\'eel order open a route towards memory devices based on antiferromagnets. Apart from the radiation and magnetic-field hardness, memory cells fabricated in antiferromagnets are inherently multilevel which could be used for neuromorphic computing. Switching speeds attainable in antiferromagnets far exceed those of the ferromagnetic and semiconductor memory technologies. Here we review the recent progress in electronic spin-transport and spin-torque phenomena in antiferromagnets that are dominantly of the relativistic quantum mechanics origin. We discuss their utility in pure antiferromagnetic or hybrid ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic memory devices