Giant magnetic response of a two-dimensional antiferromagnet

Hao, Lin; Meyers, D.; Suwa, Hidemaro; Yang, Junyi; Frederick, Clayton; Dasa, Tamene R.; Fabbris, Gilberto; Horak, Lukas; Kriegner, Dominik; Choi, Yongseong; Kim, Jong-Woo; Haskel, Daniel; Ryan, Philip J.; Xu, Haixuan; Batista, Cristian D.; Dean, M. P. M.; Liu, Jian

doi:10.1038/s41567-018-0152-6

Giant magnetic response of a two-dimensional antiferromagnet

Journal Article · Mon Jun 04 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Nature Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-018-0152-6· OSTI ID:1465531

Hao, Lin ^[1]; Meyers, D. ^[2]; ^[1]; Yang, Junyi ^[1]; Frederick, Clayton ^[1]; Dasa, Tamene R. ^[1]; Fabbris, Gilberto ^[2]; Horak, Lukas ^[3]; ^[3]; Choi, Yongseong ^[4]; Kim, Jong-Woo ^[4]; Haskel, Daniel ^[4]; Ryan, Philip J. ^[5]; ^[1]; ^[6]; ; ^[1]

Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Charles Univ., Prague (Czech Republic)
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Dublin City Univ. (Ireland)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)

A fundamental difference between antiferromagnets and ferromagnets is the lack of linear coupling to a uniform magnetic field due to the staggered order parameter. Such coupling is possible via the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction but at the expense of reduced antiferromagnetic (AFM) susceptibility due to the canting-induced spin anisotropy. We solve this long-standing problem with a top-down approach that utilizes spin-orbit coupling in the presence of a hidden SU(2) symmetry. We demonstrate giant AFM responses to sub-Tesla external fields by exploiting the extremely strong two-dimensional critical fluctuations preserved under a symmetry-invariant exchange anisotropy, which is built into a square-lattice artificially synthesized as a superlattice of SrIrO₃ and SrTiO₃. The observed field-induced logarithmic increase of the ordering temperature enables highly efficient control of the AFM order. Our results demonstrate that symmetry can be exploited in spin-orbit-coupled magnets to develop functional AFM materials for fast and secured spintronic devices.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) - Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1465531

Journal Information:: Nature Physics, Journal Name: Nature Physics Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 14; ISSN 1745-2473

Publisher:: Nature Publishing Group (NPG)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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