Abstract
Antiferromagnetic materials, which have ordered but alternating magnetic moments, exhibit fast spin dynamics and produce negligible stray fields, and could be used to build high-density, high-speed memory devices with low power consumption. However, the efficient electrical detection and manipulation of antiferromagnetic moments is challenging. Here we show that the spin current and antiferromagnetic moments in the topological insulator/antiferromagnetic insulator bilayer (Bi,Sb)2Te3/α-Fe2O3 can be controlled via topological surface states. In particular, the orientation of the antiferromagnetic moments in α-Fe2O3 can modulate the spin current reflection at the bilayer interface. In turn, the spin current can control the moment rotation in the antiferromagnetic insulator by means of a giant spin–orbit torque generated by the topological surface state. The required threshold switching current density is 3.5 × 106 A cm−2 at room temperature, which is one order of magnitude smaller than that required in heavy-metal/antiferromagnetic insulator systems.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper.
References
Jungwirth, T., Marti, X., Wadley, P. & Wunderlich, J. Antiferromagnetic spintronics. Nat. Nanotechnnol. 11, 231–241 (2016).
Park, B. G. et al. A spin-valve-like magnetoresistance of an antiferromagnet-based tunnel junction. Nat. Mater. 10, 347–351 (2011).
Wadley, P. et al. Electrical switching of an antiferromagnet. Science 351, 587–590 (2016).
Wang, Y. et al. Room-temperature perpendicular exchange coupling and tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance in an antiferromagnet-based tunnel junction. Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 137201 (2012).
Chen, X. et al. Electric field control of Néel spin–orbit torque in an antiferromagnet. Nat. Mater. 18, 931–935 (2019).
Tsai, H. et al. Electrical manipulation of a topological antiferromagnetic state. Nature 580, 608–613 (2020).
Otrokov, M. M. et al. Prediction and observation of an antiferromagnetic topological insulator. Nature 576, 416–422 (2019).
Gong, Y. et al. Experimental realization of an intrinsic magnetic topological insulator. Chin. Phys. Lett. 36, 076801 (2019).
Chen, X. et al. Observation of the antiferromagnetic spin Hall effect. Nat. Mater. 20, 800–804 (2021).
Tokura, Y., Yasuda, K. & Tsukazaki, A. Magnetic topological insulators. Nat. Rev. Phys. 1, 126–143 (2019).
Chen, Y. et al. Massive Dirac fermion on the surface of a magnetically doped topological insulator. Science 329, 659–662 (2010).
Mellnik, A. R. et al. Spin-transfer torque generated by a topological insulator. Nature 511, 449–451 (2014).
Baibich, M. N. et al. Giant magnetoresistance of (001) Fe/(001) Cr magnetic superlattices. Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 2472 (1988).
Nakayama, H. et al. Spin Hall magnetoresistance induced by a nonequilibrium proximity effect. Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 206601 (2013).
Cheng, Y. et al. Anisotropic magnetoresistance and nontrivial spin Hall magnetoresistance in Pt/α-Fe2O3 bilayers. Phys. Rev. B 100, 220408 (2019).
Zhou, Y. et al. A comparative study of spin Hall magnetoresistance in Fe2O3-based systems. J. Appl. Phys. 127, 163904 (2020).
Yasuda, Y. et al. Large unidirectional magnetoresistance in a magnetic topological insulator. Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 127202 (2016).
Lv, Y. et al. Unidirectional spin-Hall and Rashba–Edelstein magnetoresistance in topological insulator-ferromagnet layer heterostructures. Nat. Commun. 9, 111 (2018).
Slonczewski, J. C. et al. Current-driven excitation of magnetic multilayers. J. Mag. Mag. Mater. 159, L1–L7 (1996).
Fan, Y. et al. Magnetization switching through giant spin–orbit torque in a magnetically doped topological insulator heterostructure. Nat. Mater. 13, 699–704 (2014).
Kondou, K. et al. Fermi-level-dependent charge-to-spin current conversion by Dirac surface states of topological insulators. Nat. Phys. 12, 1027–1031 (2016).
Han, J. et al. Room-temperature spin-orbit torque switching induced by a topological insulator. Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 077702 (2017).
Mahendra, D. C. et al. Room-temperature high spin-orbit torque due to quantum confinement in sputtered BixSe(1−x) films. Nat. Mater. 17, 800–807 (2018).
Wang, Y. et al. Room temperature magnetization switching in topological insulator-ferromagnet heterostructures by spin-orbit torques. Nat. Commun. 8, 1364 (2017).
Khang, N. H. D., Ueda, Y. & Hai, P. N. A conductive topological insulator with large spin Hall effect for ultralow power spin–orbit torque switching. Nat. Mater. 17, 808–813 (2018).
Li, P. et al. Magnetization switching using topological surface states. Sci. Adv. 5, eaaw3415 (2019).
Han, J. et al. Mutual control of coherent spin waves and magnetic domain walls in a magnonic device. Science 366, 1121–1125 (2019).
Šmejkal, L., Mokrousov, Y., Yan, B. & MacDonald, A. H. Topological antiferromagnetic spintronics. Nat. Phys. 14, 242–251 (2018).
Miron, I. M. et al. Perpendicular switching of a single ferromagnetic layer induced by in-plane current injection. Nature 476, 189–193 (2011).
Liu, L. et al. Spin-torque switching with the giant spin Hall effect of tantalum. Science 336, 555–558 (2012).
Bodnar, S. Y. et al. Writing and reading of antiferromagnetic Mn2Au by Néel spin-orbit torques and large anisotropic magnetoresistance. Nat. Commun. 9, 348 (2018).
Chen, X. et al. Antidamping-torque-induced switching in biaxial antiferromagnetic insulators. Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 207204 (2018).
Moriyama, T., Oda, K., Ohkochi, T., Kimata, M. & Ono, T. Spin torque control of antiferromagnetic moments in NiO. Sci. Rep. 8, 14167 (2018).
Baldrati, L. et al. Mechanism of Néel order switching in antiferromagnetic thin films revealed by magnetotransport and imaging techniques. Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 177201 (2019).
Baldrati, L. et al. Efficient spin torques in antiferromagnetic CoO/Pt quantified by comparing field- and current-induced switching. Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 077201 (2020).
Cheng, Y., Yu, S., Hwang, J. & Yang, F. Electrical switching of tristate antiferromagnetic Néel order in α-Fe2O3 epitaxial films. Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 027202 (2020).
Zhang, P., Finley, J., Safi, T. & Liu, L. Quantitative study on current-induced effect in an antiferromagnet insulator/Pt bilayer film. Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 247206 (2019).
Liao, L. et al. Charge-magnon conversion at the topological insulator/antiferromagnetic insulator interface. Phys. Rev. B 102, 115152 (2020).
Hou, D. et al. Tunable sign change of spin Hall magnetoresistance in Pt/NiO/YIG structures. Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 147202 (2017).
Tang, C. et al. Above 400-K robust perpendicular ferromagnetic phase in a topological insulator. Sci. Adv. 3, e1700307 (2017).
Lang, M. et al. Proximity induced high-temperature magnetic order in topological insulator-ferrimagnetic insulator heterostructure. Nano Lett. 14, 3459–3465 (2014).
Han, J. et al. Birefringence-like spin transport via linearly polarized antiferromagnetic magnons. Nat. Nanotechnol. 15, 563–568 (2020).
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the fruitful discussions with O. V. Gomonay and J. Han. This work is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (MOST) (grant no. 2021YFB3601301), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 52225106 and 51871130) and Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality (grant no. JQ20010), as well as support of the Beijing Innovation Center for Future Chip (ICFC), Tsinghua University.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
C.S. supervised this study. X.C., H.B., Y.J. and X.L. grew the thin films and fabricated the devices. X.C., H.B., Y.Z. and Y.Y. carried out the magnetotransport measurements and proposed the theoretical calculations. A.L. and X.H. performed the microstructure and electronic structure characterizations. L.L., Q.W., W.Z., L.H., X.K., F.P. and J.Y. gave suggestions on the experiments. All the authors discussed the results and prepared the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Peer review
Peer review information
Nature Electronics thanks Samik DuttaGupta and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
Supplementary Figs. 1–9 and Sections 1–9.
Source data
Source Data Fig. 2
Statistical source data for MR.
Source Data Fig. 3
Statistical source data for SOT switching.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Chen, X., Bai, H., Ji, Y. et al. Control of spin current and antiferromagnetic moments via topological surface state. Nat Electron 5, 574–578 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-022-00825-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-022-00825-8
This article is cited by
-
Coherent antiferromagnetic spintronics
Nature Materials (2023)