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Tunable Noncollinear Antiferromagnetic Resistive Memory through Oxide Superlattice Design

Jason D. Hoffman1,2,*, Stephen M. Wu1,5,*, Brian J. Kirby3, and Anand Bhattacharya1,4,†

  • 1Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA
  • 2Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
  • 3NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA
  • 4Nanoscience and Technology Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA
  • 5Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †anand@anl.gov
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Phys. Rev. Applied 9, 044041 – Published 27 April, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.9.044041

Abstract

Antiferromagnets (AFMs) have recently gathered a large amount of attention as a potential replacement for ferromagnets (FMs) in spintronic devices due to their lack of stray magnetic fields, invisibility to external magnetic probes, and faster magnetization dynamics. Their development into a practical technology, however, has been hampered by the small number of materials where the antiferromagnetic state can be both controlled and read out. We show that by relaxing the strict criterion on pure antiferromagnetism, we can engineer an alternative class of magnetic materials that overcome these limitations. This is accomplished by stabilizing a noncollinear magnetic phase in LaNiO3/La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 superlattices. This state can be continuously tuned between AFM and FM coupling through varying the superlattice spacing, strain, applied magnetic field, or temperature. By using this alternative “knob” to tune magnetic ordering, we take a nanoscale materials-by-design approach to engineering ferromagneticlike controllability into antiferromagnetic synthetic magnetic structures. This approach can be used to trade-off between the favorable and unfavorable properties of FMs and AFMs when designing realistic resistive antiferromagnetic memories. We demonstrate a memory device in one such superlattice, where the magnetic state of the noncollinear antiferromagnet is reversibly switched between different orientations using a small magnetic field and read out in real time with anisotropic magnetoresistance measurements.

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Phys. Rev. Applied 9, 044041– Published 27 April, 2018
  • Received 24 October 2017
  • Revised 18 January 2018
Article part of CHORUS
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