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Giant magnetic response of a two-dimensional antiferromagnet

Nature Physics volume 14, pages 806–810 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

A fundamental difference between antiferromagnets and ferromagnets is the lack of linear coupling to a uniform magnetic field due to the staggered order parameter1. Such coupling is possible via the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya (DM) interaction2,3, but at the expense of reduced antiferromagnetic (AFM) susceptibility due to the canting-induced spin anisotropy4. We solve this long-standing problem with a top-down approach that utilizes spin–orbit coupling in the presence of a hidden SU(2) symmetry. We demonstrate giant AFM responses to sub-tesla external fields by exploiting the extremely strong two-dimensional critical fluctuations preserved under a symmetry-invariant exchange anisotropy, which is built into a square lattice artificially synthesized as a superlattice of SrIrO3 and SrTiO3. The observed field-induced logarithmic increase of the ordering temperature enables highly efficient control of the AFM order. Our results demonstrate that symmetry can be exploited in spin–orbit-coupled magnets to develop functional AFM materials for fast and secured spintronic devices5,6,7,8,9.

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Fig. 1: Design and realization of spin canting without spin anisotropy via a SU(2)-invariant DM interaction.
Fig. 2: Magnetic diffraction in applied magnetic fields.
Fig. 3: Theoretical analysis and experimental confirmation.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge experimental assistance from H. D. Zhou, E. Karapetrova, C. Rouleau, Z. Gai, J. K. Keum and N. Traynor. The authors would like to thank E. Dagotto, I. Zalzinyak, D. McMorrow, J.-H. Chu and H. D. Zhou for fruitful discussions. J.L. acknowledges support by the start-up fund and the Transdisciplinary Academy Program at the University of Tennessee. J.L. and H.X. acknowledge support by the Organized Research Unit Program at the University of Tennessee and support by the DOD-DARPA under grant no. HR0011-16-1-0005. M.P.M.D. and D.M. are supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Early Career Award Program under award number 1047478. H.S. and C.D.B. are supported by funding from the Lincoln Chair of Excellence in Physics. D.K. and L.H. acknowledge the support by the ERDF (project CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000485) and the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic grant (14-37427 G). A portion of the work was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility. Use of the Advanced Photon Source, an Office of Science User Facility operated for the US DOE, OS by Argonne National Laboratory, was supported by the U. S. DOE under contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

    Lin Hao, Hidemaro Suwa, Junyi Yang, Clayton Frederick, Cristian D. Batista & Jian Liu

  2. Department of Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA

    D. Meyers, Gilberto Fabbris & M. P. M. Dean

  3. Department of Physics, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Hidemaro Suwa

  4. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

    Tamene R. Dasa & Haixuan Xu

  5. Department of Condensed Matter Physics, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Lukas Horak & Dominik Kriegner

  6. Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic

    Dominik Kriegner

  7. Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA

    Yongseong Choi, Jong-Woo Kim, Daniel Haskel & Philip J. Ryan

  8. School of Physical Sciences, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

    Philip J. Ryan

  9. Quantum Condensed Matter Division and Shull-Wollan Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA

    Cristian D. Batista

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Contributions

C.D.B., M.P.M.D. and J.L. conceived and directed the study. L.H., D.M., J.Y. and C.F. undertook sample growth and characterization. L.H., D.M., J.Y., J.W.K. and P.J.R. performed magnetic scattering measurements. L.H., D.M., G.F., Y.S.C. and D.H. conducted XMCD measurements. L.H., D.M., J.Y., L.H. and D.K. collected synchrotron XRD data. L.H. and J.L. analysed data. H.S. and C.D.B. performed Monte Carlo simulations. T.R.D. and H.X. performed first-principles calculations. L.H., H.S., C.D.B., M.P.M.D. and J.L. wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Haixuan Xu, Cristian D. Batista, M. P. M. Dean or Jian Liu.

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Hao, L., Meyers, D., Suwa, H. et al. Giant magnetic response of a two-dimensional antiferromagnet. Nature Phys 14, 806–810 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-018-0152-6

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