Magnetic anisotropy in antiferromagnetic hexagonal MnTe

D. Kriegner, H. Reichlova, J. Grenzer, W. Schmidt, E. Ressouche, J. Godinho, T. Wagner, S. Y. Martin, A. B. Shick, V. V. Volobuev, G. Springholz, V. Holý, J. Wunderlich, T. Jungwirth, and K. Výborný
Phys. Rev. B 96, 214418 – Published 13 December 2017

Abstract

Antiferromagnetic hexagonal MnTe is a promising material for spintronic devices relying on the control of antiferromagnetic domain orientations. Here we report on neutron diffraction, magnetotransport, and magnetometry experiments on semiconducting epitaxial MnTe thin films together with density functional theory (DFT) calculations of the magnetic anisotropies. The easy axes of the magnetic moments within the hexagonal basal plane are determined to be along 11¯00 directions. The spin-flop transition and concomitant repopulation of domains in strong magnetic fields is observed. Using epitaxially induced strain the onset of the spin-flop transition changes from 2 to 0.5 T for films grown on InP and SrF2 substrates, respectively.

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  • Received 27 October 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.214418

©2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

D. Kriegner1,2,*, H. Reichlova1, J. Grenzer3, W. Schmidt4, E. Ressouche5, J. Godinho1, T. Wagner6, S. Y. Martin6,7, A. B. Shick8, V. V. Volobuev9,10, G. Springholz9, V. Holý2, J. Wunderlich6, T. Jungwirth1,11, and K. Výborný1

  • 1Institute of Physics, Academy of Science of the Czech Republic, Cukrovarnická 10, 162 00 Praha 6, Czech Republic
  • 2Charles University in Prague, Ke Karlovu 3, 121 16 Praha 2, Czech Republic
  • 3Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research, Bautzner Landstrasse 400, 01328 Dresden, Germany
  • 4Jülich Centre for Neutron Science JCNS, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Outstation at ILL, CS 20156, 71 avenue des Martyrs, F-38042 Grenoble, France
  • 5Université Grenoble Alpes, CEA, INAC-MEM, 38000 Grenoble, France
  • 6Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory, Cambridge CB3 0HE, United Kingdom
  • 7Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, CEA, Grenoble INP, INAC-Spintec, 38000 Grenoble, France
  • 8Institute of Physics, Academy of Science of the Czech Republic, Na Slovance 1999/2, 182 21 Praha 8, Czech Republic
  • 9Institute of Semiconductor and Solid State Physics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Altenbergerstr. 69, 4040 Linz, Austria
  • 10National Technical University, “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute,” 61002 Kharkiv, Ukraine
  • 11School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom

  • *dominik.kriegner@gmail.com

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Vol. 96, Iss. 21 — 1 December 2017

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