Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, United States.
Center for Memory and Recording Research, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0401, United States.
Nano Lett. 2023 Jun 14;23(11):5326-5333. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c01523. Epub 2023 May 23.
Noncollinear antiferromagnets with novel magnetic orders, vanishingly small net magnetization, and exotic spin related properties hold enormous promise for developing next-generation, transformative spintronic applications. A major ongoing research focus of this community is to explore, control, and harness unconventional magnetic phases of this emergent material system to deliver state-of-the-art functionalities for modern microelectronics. Here we report direct imaging of magnetic domains of polycrystalline MnSn films, a prototypical noncollinear antiferromagnet, using nitrogen-vacancy-based single-spin scanning microscopy. Nanoscale evolution of local stray field patterns of MnSn samples are systematically investigated in response to external driving forces, revealing the characteristic "heterogeneous" magnetic switching behaviors in polycrystalline textured MnSn films. Our results contribute to a comprehensive understanding of inhomogeneous magnetic orders of noncollinear antiferromagnets, highlighting the potential of nitrogen-vacancy centers to study microscopic spin properties of a broad range of emergent condensed matter systems.
具有新颖磁序、趋近于零的净磁化强度和奇异自旋相关性质的非共线反铁磁体，为开发下一代变革性的自旋电子应用带来了巨大的前景。该领域的一个主要研究重点是探索、控制和利用这种新兴材料系统的非常规磁相，为现代微电子学提供最先进的功能。在这里，我们使用基于氮空位的单自旋扫描显微镜报告了多晶 MnSn 薄膜的磁畴的直接成像，MnSn 薄膜是典型的非共线反铁磁体。系统地研究了 MnSn 样品的局部杂散场图案的纳米级演化，以响应外部驱动力，揭示了多晶织构化 MnSn 薄膜中“非均匀”磁开关行为的特征。我们的研究结果有助于全面理解非共线反铁磁体的不均匀磁序，并强调氮空位中心在研究广泛的新兴凝聚态系统的微观自旋性质方面的潜力。
