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Nanomagnetism of Magnetoelectric Granular Thin-Film Antiferromagnets

[Image: see text] Antiferromagnets have recently emerged as attractive platforms for spintronics applications, offering fundamentally new functionalities compared with their ferromagnetic counterparts. Whereas nanoscale thin-film materials are key to the development of future antiferromagnetic spint...

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Autores principales: Appel, Patrick, Shields, Brendan J., Kosub, Tobias, Hedrich, Natascha, Hübner, René, Faßbender, Jürgen, Makarov, Denys, Maletinsky, Patrick
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Chemical Society 2019
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6422036/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30702895
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b04681
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author Appel, Patrick
Shields, Brendan J.
Kosub, Tobias
Hedrich, Natascha
Hübner, René
Faßbender, Jürgen
Makarov, Denys
Maletinsky, Patrick
author_facet Appel, Patrick
Shields, Brendan J.
Kosub, Tobias
Hedrich, Natascha
Hübner, René
Faßbender, Jürgen
Makarov, Denys
Maletinsky, Patrick
author_sort Appel, Patrick
collection PubMed
description [Image: see text] Antiferromagnets have recently emerged as attractive platforms for spintronics applications, offering fundamentally new functionalities compared with their ferromagnetic counterparts. Whereas nanoscale thin-film materials are key to the development of future antiferromagnetic spintronic technologies, existing experimental tools tend to suffer from low resolution or expensive and complex equipment requirements. We offer a simple, high-resolution alternative by addressing the ubiquitous surface magnetization of magnetoelectric antiferromagnets in a granular thin-film sample on the nanoscale using single-spin magnetometry in combination with spin-sensitive transport experiments. Specifically, we quantitatively image the evolution of individual nanoscale antiferromagnetic domains in 200 nm thin films of Cr(2)O(3) in real space and across the paramagnet-to-antiferromagnet phase transition, finding an average domain size of 230 nm, several times larger than the average grain size in the film. These experiments allow us to discern key properties of the Cr(2)O(3) thin film, including the boundary magnetic moment density, the variation of critical temperature throughout the film, the mechanism of domain formation, and the strength of exchange coupling between individual grains comprising the film. Our work offers novel insights into the magnetic ordering mechanism of Cr(2)O(3) and firmly establishes single-spin magnetometry as a versatile and widely applicable tool for addressing antiferromagnetic thin films on the nanoscale.
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spelling pubmed-64220362020-01-31 Nanomagnetism of Magnetoelectric Granular Thin-Film Antiferromagnets Appel, Patrick Shields, Brendan J. Kosub, Tobias Hedrich, Natascha Hübner, René Faßbender, Jürgen Makarov, Denys Maletinsky, Patrick Nano Lett [Image: see text] Antiferromagnets have recently emerged as attractive platforms for spintronics applications, offering fundamentally new functionalities compared with their ferromagnetic counterparts. Whereas nanoscale thin-film materials are key to the development of future antiferromagnetic spintronic technologies, existing experimental tools tend to suffer from low resolution or expensive and complex equipment requirements. We offer a simple, high-resolution alternative by addressing the ubiquitous surface magnetization of magnetoelectric antiferromagnets in a granular thin-film sample on the nanoscale using single-spin magnetometry in combination with spin-sensitive transport experiments. Specifically, we quantitatively image the evolution of individual nanoscale antiferromagnetic domains in 200 nm thin films of Cr(2)O(3) in real space and across the paramagnet-to-antiferromagnet phase transition, finding an average domain size of 230 nm, several times larger than the average grain size in the film. These experiments allow us to discern key properties of the Cr(2)O(3) thin film, including the boundary magnetic moment density, the variation of critical temperature throughout the film, the mechanism of domain formation, and the strength of exchange coupling between individual grains comprising the film. Our work offers novel insights into the magnetic ordering mechanism of Cr(2)O(3) and firmly establishes single-spin magnetometry as a versatile and widely applicable tool for addressing antiferromagnetic thin films on the nanoscale. American Chemical Society 2019-01-31 2019-03-13 /pmc/articles/PMC6422036/ /pubmed/30702895 http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b04681 Text en Copyright © 2019 American Chemical Society This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License (http://pubs.acs.org/page/policy/authorchoice_ccby_termsofuse.html) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the author and source are cited.
spellingShingle Appel, Patrick
Shields, Brendan J.
Kosub, Tobias
Hedrich, Natascha
Hübner, René
Faßbender, Jürgen
Makarov, Denys
Maletinsky, Patrick
Nanomagnetism of Magnetoelectric Granular Thin-Film Antiferromagnets
title Nanomagnetism of Magnetoelectric Granular Thin-Film Antiferromagnets
title_full Nanomagnetism of Magnetoelectric Granular Thin-Film Antiferromagnets
title_fullStr Nanomagnetism of Magnetoelectric Granular Thin-Film Antiferromagnets
title_full_unstemmed Nanomagnetism of Magnetoelectric Granular Thin-Film Antiferromagnets
title_short Nanomagnetism of Magnetoelectric Granular Thin-Film Antiferromagnets
title_sort nanomagnetism of magnetoelectric granular thin-film antiferromagnets
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6422036/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30702895
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b04681
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