Activation of antiferromagnetic domain switching in exchange-coupled Fe/CoO/MgO(001) systems

Q. Li, G. Chen, T. P. Ma, J. Zhu, A. T. N'Diaye, L. Sun, T. Gu, Y. Huo, J. H. Liang, R. W. Li, C. Won, H. F. Ding, Z. Q. Qiu, and Y. Z. Wu
Phys. Rev. B 91, 134428 – Published 29 April 2015

Abstract

In contrast to the extensive study of domain reversal in ferromagnetic materials, the domain switching process in antiferromagnets is much less studied due to the difficulty of probing antiferromagnetic spins. Using a combination of hysteresis loop, Kerr microscope, and x-ray magnetic linear dichroism measurements, we investigated the antiferromagnetic (AFM) domain switching process in single crystalline Fe/CoO bilayers on MgO(001). We demonstrate that the CoO AFM switching is a Kolmogorov-Avrami process in which the thermal activation energy creates AFM domain nucleation centers which further expand by domain wall propagation. From the temperature- and thickness-dependent measurements, we are able to retrieve quantitatively the important parameter of the CoO AFM activation energy, which is shown to increase linearly with CoO thickness.

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  • Received 3 February 2015
  • Revised 30 March 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.91.134428

©2015 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Q. Li1, G. Chen2, T. P. Ma1, J. Zhu1, A. T. N'Diaye3, L. Sun1, T. Gu1, Y. Huo1, J. H. Liang1, R. W. Li4, C. Won5, H. F. Ding6, Z. Q. Qiu7,*, and Y. Z. Wu1,†

  • 1Department of Physics, State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, People's Republic of China
  • 2NCEM, Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  • 3Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  • 4Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices, Ningbo 315201, Zhejiang, People's Republic of China
  • 5Department of Physics, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea
  • 6National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Department of Physics and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, 22 Hankou Road, Nanjing 210093, People's Republic of China
  • 7Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

  • *Electronic address: qiu@berkeley.edu
  • Electronic address: wuyizheng@fudan.edu.cn

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Issue

Vol. 91, Iss. 13 — 1 April 2015

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