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Quantum materials

Imaging the twist of antiferromagnetic merons in a blood-red iron oxide

Nature Materials volume 23, pages 176–177 (2024)Cite this article

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The antiferromagnetic material haematite, named for its blood-red colour, hosts swirling spin vortices termed merons. The rotation sense of such antiferromagnetic vortices has now been imaged in real space.

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Fig. 1: Antiferromagnetic meron and antimeron vortices of the Néel vector in α-Fe2O3.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge helpful comments from J. Masell (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Quantum Electronics, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Leonie Spitz

  2. Department of Applied Physics and Quantum-Phase Electronics Center (QPEC), The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Max Hirschberger

  3. RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science, Wakoshi, Japan

    Max Hirschberger

Authors
  1. Leonie Spitz
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  2. Max Hirschberger
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Correspondence to Max Hirschberger.

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Spitz, L., Hirschberger, M. Imaging the twist of antiferromagnetic merons in a blood-red iron oxide. Nat. Mater. 23, 176–177 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-023-01768-x

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