Electrical switching of antiferromagnetic CoO | Pt across the N\'eel temperature

TL;DR

This study investigates electrical switching in antiferromagnetic CoO|Pt devices, demonstrating a method to distinguish magnetic signals from thermal effects through temperature-dependent resistance measurements, advancing antiferromagnetic spintronics.

Contribution

The paper introduces a temperature-dependent analysis to confirm the magnetic origin of electrical signals in antiferromagnetic switching, overcoming previous challenges related to thermal effects.

Findings

Magnetic signals are present only below the Néel temperature.

Electrical signals are not solely due to thermal effects.

Method enables identification of optimal switching conditions.

Abstract

One of the most important challenges in antiferromagnetic spintronics is the read-out of the N\'eel vector state. High current densities up to 10$^8$ Acm$^{-2}$ used in the electrical switching experiments cause notorious difficulty in distinguishing between magnetic and thermal origins of the electrical signals. To overcome this problem, we present a temperature dependence study of the transverse resistance changes in the switching experiment with CoO|Pt devices. We demonstrate the possibility to extract a pattern of spin Hall magnetoresistance for current pulses density of $5 \times 10^7$ Acm$^{-2}$ that is present only below the N\'eel temperature and does not follow a trend expected for thermal effects. This is the compelling evidence for the magnetic origin of the signal, which is observed using purely electrical techniques. We confirm these findings by complementary experiments in an external magnetic field. Such an approach can allow determining the optimal conditions for switching antiferromagnets and be very valuable when no imaging techniques can be applied to verify the origin of the electrical signal.