Resistive contribution in electrical switching experiments with antiferromagnets

TL;DR

This paper investigates how electrical stress during antiferromagnetic switching experiments causes resistive artifacts that mimic magnetic signals, complicating the interpretation of electrical readouts.

Contribution

It reveals that electrical stress induces resistive inhomogeneities that produce artifacts resembling magnetic signals, and proposes methods to distinguish these effects.

Findings

Electrical stress alters film resistivity locally.

Resistive artifacts can mimic anisotropic magnetoresistance signals.

Strategies are proposed to separate resistive and magnetic contributions.

Abstract

Recent research demonstrated the electrical switching of antiferromagnets via intrinsic spin-orbit torque or the spin Hall effect of an adjacent heavy metal layer. The electrical readout is typically realized by measuring the transverse anisotropic magnetoresistance at planar cross- or star-shaped devices with four or eight arms, respectively. Depending on the material, the current density necessary to switch the magnetic state can be large, often close to the destruction threshold of the device. We demonstrate that the resulting electrical stress changes the film resistivity locally and thereby breaks the fourfold rotational symmetry of the conductor. This symmetry breaking due to film inhomogeneity produces signals, that resemble the anisotropic magnetoresistance and is experimentally seen as a "saw-tooth"-shaped transverse resistivity. This artifact can persist over many repeats of the switching experiment and is not easily separable from the magnetic contribution. We discuss the origin of the artifact, elucidate the role of the film crystallinity, and propose approaches how to separate the resistive contribution from the magnetic contribution.