Physics

Torque

Aerospace engineering

Current (fluid)

Nanotechnology

Symmetry (geometry)

Mathematics

Ferromagnetism

Magnetic field

Magnetoresistance

Optics

Epitaxy

Engineering

Antiferromagnetism

Spintronics

Materials science

Orbit (dynamics)

Geometry

Condensed matter physics

Layer (electronics)

Spin (aerodynamics)

Quantum mechanics

Anisotropy

Thermodynamics

Nature Communications

Using antiferromagnets as active elements in spintronics requires the ability to manipulate and read-out the Néel vector orientation. Here we demonstrate for Mn 2 Au, a good conductor with a high ordering temperature suitable for applications, reproducible switching using current pulse generated bulk spin-orbit torques and read-out by magnetoresistance measurements. Reversible and consistent changes of the longitudinal resistance and planar Hall voltage of star-patterned epitaxial Mn 2 Au(001) thin films were generated by pulse current densities of ≃10 7 A/cm 2 . The symmetry of the torques agrees with theoretical predictions and a large read-out magnetoresistance effect of more than ≃6% is reproduced by ab initio transport calculations.

Writing and reading antiferromagnetic Mn2Au by Néel spin-orbit torques and large anisotropic magnetoresistance