Rotating Néel Order to Probe Crystalline and Non-Crystalline AMR in FeRh

ORAL

Abstract

Anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) effects are a promising starting point for the electrical readout of antiferromagnetic memory in a spintronic device. We characterized both crystalline and non-crystalline AMR in thin films of FeRh, a material which undergoes a ferro- to antiferromagnetic transition near room temperature. The resistance is measured as an external field is rotated in the sample plane. In the antiferromagnetic phase we observe a striking dependence of the AMR signal on both field magnitude, and current orientation relative to the FeRh [100] crystalline axis. We confirm that AMR arises from rotating Neel order two ways: 1) We developed a procedure combining rotating and linearly swept fields to demonstrate an angular hysteresis effect; 2) We use density functional theory for a first-principles description of the evolution of the AMR signal, representing the external magnetic field by canted spins and the sweeping field by Néel vector rotation from the [100] direction.

*This work was undertaken as part of the Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, supported by the NSF MRSEC program under NSF award number DMR-1720633. Sample growth was supported by the DoE, Office of Science, Materials Science and Engineering Division.

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Presenters

  • Joseph Sklenar

    • Wayne State Univ
    • Wayne State University
    • Physics and Astronomy, Wayne State University

Authors

  • Joseph Sklenar

    • Wayne State Univ
    • Wayne State University
    • Physics and Astronomy, Wayne State University

  • Soho Shim

    • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  • HIlal Saglam

    • Argonne National Laboratory

  • Kisung Kang

    • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
    • Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  • Junseok Oh

    • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
    • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    • Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  • Greg A Hamilton

    • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  • Wei Zhang

    • Oakland University
    • Physics, Oakland University
    • Department of Physics, Oakland University
    • Electronic and Computer Engineering, Oakland University

  • Matthew Gilbert

    • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
    • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    • Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  • Andre Schleife

    • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
    • Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  • Axel Hoffmann

    • University of Illinois
    • Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
    • Argonne National Laboratory
    • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
    • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    • Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    • Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory
    • Argonne Natl Lab

  • Nadya Mason

    • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
    • Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign