Project

Spin dynamics in antiferromagnetic nanostructures

Code
bof/baf/4y/2024/01/288
Duration
01 January 2024 → 31 December 2025
Funding
Regional and community funding: Special Research Fund
Research disciplines
  • Natural sciences
    • Magnetism and superconductivity
    • Nanophysics and nanosystems
    • Surfaces, interfaces, 2D materials
Keywords
magnetisation dynamics antiferromagnets domain walls
 
Project description

Oppositely to the more common ferromagnets, the atomic magnetic moments (spins) in antiferromagnets are oriented anti-parallel with respect to their neighbors. Such a microscopic alternating alignment completely cancels out the internal magnetic fields and hides this ordered state from the outside world. It was not surprising that the discoverer of antiferromagnetism, Louis Néel, described them as theoretically interesting but technologically useless in his 1970 Nobel lecture. Recently, however, it was discovered that the orientation of antiferromagnetic spins can be manipulated and detected by just using simple electrical currents. This could make antiferromagnets the ideal material for a new generation of spintronic devices. In this project, we will investigate how fast the orientation of spins in antiferromagnets can be changes. With an X-ray microscope sensitive to the magnetic moments, we will record high resolution movies of the changing spin orientation. This research will learn us how the operation speed as an important characteristic of such a new technology can be optimized.