Spin Hall magnetoresistance in antiferromagnet/heavy-metal heterostructures

Johanna Fischer, Olena Gomonay, Richard Schlitz, Kathrin Ganzhorn, Nynke Vlietstra, Matthias Althammer, Hans Huebl, Matthias Opel, Rudolf Gross, Sebastian T. B. Goennenwein, and Stephan Geprägs
Phys. Rev. B 97, 014417 – Published 17 January 2018

Abstract

We investigate the spin Hall magnetoresistance in thin-film bilayer heterostructures of the heavy metal Pt and the antiferromagnetic insulator NiO. While rotating an external magnetic field in the easy plane of NiO, we record the longitudinal and the transverse resistivity of the Pt layer and observe an amplitude modulation consistent with the spin Hall magnetoresistance. In comparison to Pt on collinear ferrimagnets, the modulation is phase shifted by 90 and its amplitude strongly increases with the magnitude of the magnetic field. We explain the observed magnetic field dependence of the spin Hall magnetoresistance in a comprehensive model taking into account magnetic-field-induced modifications of the domain structure in antiferromagnets. With this generic model, we are further able to estimate the strength of the magnetoelastic coupling in antiferromagnets. Our detailed study shows that the spin Hall magnetoresistance is a versatile tool to investigate the magnetic spin structure as well as magnetoelastic effects, even in antiferromagnetic multidomain materials.

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  • Received 13 September 2017
  • Revised 22 December 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.97.014417

©2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Johanna Fischer1,2, Olena Gomonay3, Richard Schlitz4,5, Kathrin Ganzhorn1,2, Nynke Vlietstra1,2, Matthias Althammer1,2, Hans Huebl1,2,6, Matthias Opel1, Rudolf Gross1,2,6, Sebastian T. B. Goennenwein4,5, and Stephan Geprägs1,*

  • 1Walther-Meißner-Institut, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 85748 Garching, Germany
  • 2Physik-Department, Technische Universität München, 85748 Garching, Germany
  • 3Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, 55128 Mainz, Germany
  • 4Institut für Festkörper- und Materialphysik, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany
  • 5Center for Transport and Devices of Emergent Materials, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany
  • 6Nanosystems Initiative Munich, 80799 München, Germany

  • *stephan.gepraegs@wmi.badw.de

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Vol. 97, Iss. 1 — 1 January 2018

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