- Wu, Hao;
- Zhang, Hantao;
- Wang, Baomin;
- Groß, Felix;
- Yang, Chao-Yao;
- Li, Gengfei;
- Guo, Chenyang;
- He, Haoran;
- Wong, Kin;
- Wu, Di;
- Han, Xiufeng;
- Lai, Chih-Huang;
- Gräfe, Joachim;
- Cheng, Ran;
- Wang, Kang L
Terahertz (THz) spin dynamics and vanishing stray field make antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials the most promising candidate for the next-generation magnetic memory technology with revolutionary storage density and writing speed. However, owing to the extremely large exchange energy barriers, energy-efficient manipulation has been a fundamental challenge in AFM systems. Here, we report an electrical writing of antiferromagnetic orders through a record-low current density on the order of 106 A cm-2 facilitated by the unique AFM-ferromagnetic (FM) phase transition in FeRh. By introducing a transient FM state via current-induced Joule heating, the spin-orbit torque can switch the AFM order parameter by 90° with a reduced writing current density similar to ordinary FM materials. This mechanism is further verified by measuring the temperature and magnetic bias field dependences, where the X-ray magnetic linear dichroism (XMLD) results confirm the AFM switching besides the electrical transport measurement. Our findings demonstrate the exciting possibility of writing operations in AFM-based devices with a lower current density, opening a new pathway towards pure AFM memory applications.