Antiferromagnets can encode information in their ordered magnetic structure, providing the basis for future spintronic devices1–3. The control and understanding of antiferromagnetic domain walls, ...which are the interfaces between domains with differing order parameter orientations, are key ingredients for advancing antiferromagnetic spintronic technologies. However, studies of the intrinsic mechanics of individual antiferromagnetic domain walls are difficult because they require sufficiently pure materials and suitable experimental approaches to address domain walls on the nanoscale. Here we nucleate isolated 180° domain walls in a single crystal of Cr2O3, a prototypical collinear magnetoelectric antiferromagnet, and study their interaction with topographic features fabricated on the sample. We demonstrate domain wall manipulation through the resulting engineered energy landscape and show that the observed interaction is governed by the surface energy of the domain wall. We propose a topographically defined memory architecture based on antiferromagnetic domain walls. Our results advance the understanding of domain wall mechanics in antiferromagnets.High-resolution magnetometry shows that the shape of domain walls in Cr2O3 is determined by the energetic cost of their surface area. The walls behave like elastic surfaces that avoid thicker parts of the sample where they would need to be larger.
We report on imaging of microwave (MW) magnetic fields using a magnetometer based on the electron spin of a nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in diamond. We quantitatively image the magnetic field ...generated by high frequency (GHz) MW current with nanoscale resolution using a scanning probe technique. Together with a shot noise limited MW magnetic field sensitivity of 680 nT Hz−1/2 our room temperature experiments establish the NV center as a versatile and high performance tool for MW imaging, which furthermore offers polarization selectivity and broadband capabilities. As a first application of this scanning MW detector, we image the MW stray field around a stripline structure and thereby locally determine the MW current density with a MW current sensitivity of a few nA Hz−1/2.
Magnetic random access memory schemes employing magnetoelectric coupling to write binary information promise outstanding energy efficiency. We propose and demonstrate a purely antiferromagnetic ...magnetoelectric random access memory (AF-MERAM) that offers a remarkable 50-fold reduction of the writing threshold compared with ferromagnet-based counterparts, is robust against magnetic disturbances and exhibits no ferromagnetic hysteresis losses. Using the magnetoelectric antiferromagnet Cr
O
, we demonstrate reliable isothermal switching via gate voltage pulses and all-electric readout at room temperature. As no ferromagnetic component is present in the system, the writing magnetic field does not need to be pulsed for readout, allowing permanent magnets to be used. Based on our prototypes, we construct a comprehensive model of the magnetoelectric selection mechanisms in thin films of magnetoelectric antiferromagnets, revealing misfit induced ferrimagnetism as an important factor. Beyond memory applications, the AF-MERAM concept introduces a general all-electric interface for antiferromagnets and should find wide applicability in antiferromagnetic spintronics.
The mesoscopic spin system formed by the 10 super(4)-10 super(6) nuclear spins in a semiconductor quantum dot offers a unique setting for the study of many-body spin physics in the condensed matter. ...The dynamics of this system and its coupling to electron spins is fundamentally different from its bulk counterpart or the case of individual atoms due to increased fluctuations that result from reduced dimensions. In recent years, the interest in studying quantum-dot nuclear spin systems and their coupling to confined electron spins has been further fueled by its importance for possible quantum information processing applications. The fascinating nonlinear (quantum) dynamics of the coupled electron-nuclear spin system is universal in quantum dot optics and transport. In this article, experimental work performed over the last decade in studying this mesoscopic, coupled electron-nuclear spin system is reviewed. Here a special focus is on how optical addressing of electron spins can be exploited to manipulate and read out the quantum-dot nuclei. Particularly exciting recent developments in applying optical techniques to efficiently establish nonzero mean nuclear spin polarizations and using them to reduce intrinsic nuclear spin fluctuations are discussed. Both results critically influence the preservation of electron-spin coherence in quantum dots. This overall recently gained understanding of the quantum-dot nuclear spin system could enable exciting new research avenues such as experimental observations of spontaneous spin ordering or nonclassical behavior of the nuclear spin bath.
The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond has an optically addressable, highly coherent spin. However, a NV center even in high-quality single-crystalline material is a very poor source of single ...photons: Extraction out of the high-index diamond is inefficient, the emission of coherent photons represents just a few percent of the total emission, and the decay time is large. In principle, all three problems can be addressed with a resonant microcavity. In practice, it has proved difficult to implement this concept: Photonic engineering hinges on nanofabrication, yet it is notoriously difficult to process diamond without degrading the NV centers. Here, we present a microcavity scheme that uses minimally processed diamond, thereby preserving the high quality of the starting material and a tunable microcavity platform. We demonstrate a clear change in the lifetime for multiple individual NV centers on tuning both the cavity frequency and antinode position, a Purcell effect. The overall Purcell factor FP=2.0 translates to a Purcell factor for the zero phonon line (ZPL) of FPZPL∼30 and an increase in the ZPL emission probability from about 3% to 46%. By making a step change in the NV’s optical properties in a deterministic way, these results pave the way for much enhanced spin-photon and spin-spin entanglement rates.
Antiferromagnets have recently emerged as attractive platforms for spintronics applications, offering fundamentally new functionalities compared with their ferromagnetic counterparts. Whereas ...nanoscale thin-film materials are key to the development of future antiferromagnetic spintronic technologies, existing experimental tools tend to suffer from low resolution or expensive and complex equipment requirements. We offer a simple, high-resolution alternative by addressing the ubiquitous surface magnetization of magnetoelectric antiferromagnets in a granular thin-film sample on the nanoscale using single-spin magnetometry in combination with spin-sensitive transport experiments. Specifically, we quantitatively image the evolution of individual nanoscale antiferromagnetic domains in 200 nm thin films of Cr2O3 in real space and across the paramagnet-to-antiferromagnet phase transition, finding an average domain size of 230 nm, several times larger than the average grain size in the film. These experiments allow us to discern key properties of the Cr2O3 thin film, including the boundary magnetic moment density, the variation of critical temperature throughout the film, the mechanism of domain formation, and the strength of exchange coupling between individual grains comprising the film. Our work offers novel insights into the magnetic ordering mechanism of Cr2O3 and firmly establishes single-spin magnetometry as a versatile and widely applicable tool for addressing antiferromagnetic thin films on the nanoscale.
In three-level quantum systems, interference between two simultaneously driven excitation pathways can give rise to effects such as coherent population trapping1,2 and electromagnetically induced ...transparency3. The possibility to exploit these effects has made three-level systems a cornerstone of quantum optics. Coherent driving of the third available transition forms a closed-contour interaction (CCI), which yields fundamentally new phenomena, including phase-controlled coherent population trapping4,5 and phase-controlled coherent population dynamics6. Despite attractive prospects, prevalent dephasing in experimental systems suitable for CCI driving has made its observation elusive7–10. Here, we exploit recently developed methods for coherent manipulation of nitrogen–vacancy electronic spins to implement and study highly coherent CCI driving of a single spin. Our experiments reveal phase-controlled quantum interference, reminiscent of electron dynamics on a closed loop threaded by a magnetic flux, which we synthesize from the driving-field phase11. Owing to the nature of the dressed states created under CCI, we achieve nearly two orders of magnitude improvement of the dephasing times, even for moderate drive strengths. CCI driving constitutes a novel approach to coherent control of few-level systems, with potential for applications in quantum sensing or quantum information processing.
Abstract
Magnons can transfer information in metals and insulators without Joule heating, and therefore are promising for low-power computation. The on-chip magnonics however suffers from high losses ...due to limited magnon decay length. In metallic thin films, it is typically on the tens of micrometre length scale. Here, we demonstrate an ultra-long magnon decay length of up to one millimetre in multiferroic/ferromagnetic BiFeO
3
(BFO)/La
0.67
Sr
0.33
MnO
3
(LSMO) heterostructures at room temperature. This decay length is attributed to a magnon-phonon hybridization and is more than two orders of magnitude longer than that of bare metallic LSMO. The long-distance modes have high group velocities of 2.5 km s
−1
as detected by time-resolved Brillouin light scattering. Numerical simulations suggest that magnetoelastic coupling via the BFO/LSMO interface hybridizes phonons in BFO with magnons in LSMO to form magnon-polarons. Our results provide a solution to the long-standing issue on magnon decay lengths in metallic magnets and advance the bourgeoning field of hybrid magnonics.
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