UC Riverside

Antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials offer exciting opportunities for spintronic applications, yet the absence of net magnetization fundamentally hinders both the manipulation and detection of their order parameter, the Néel vector, compared to the ferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic counterparts. The coupling between electric and magnetic orders, known as the magnetoelectric effect, provides a promising route to control and detect the Néel vector electrically.In my dissertation, I present studies on heterostructures based on magnetoelectric antiferromagnets, including Cr₂O₃ and the two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals material MnPS₃. In Cr₂O₃, we investigate the electrical detection of the Néel vector across the spin-flop transition in adjacent Pt layers, enabling a clear separation of multiple spin transport contributions. We further demonstrate electrical control of the Néel vector through linear magnetoelectric coupling, realizing an analog of electrical read/write operations in a functional AFM-based memory device. For epitaxial Cr₂O₃ thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition, the top and bottom Pt Hall sensing layers exhibit inverted hysteresis loops, reflecting Néel vector reversal driven only by an external magnetic field, with a distinct thickness-dependent crossover behavior.Finally, I present preliminary results on two types of heterostructures containing antiferromagnetic MnPS₃, i.e., MnPS₃/Pt and WTe₂/MnPS₃, where MnPS₃ imprints its magnetism on the anomalous Hall effect in Pt layers and on the quantum oscillations in the 2D Weyl semimetal WTe₂. Collectively, these studies advance our understanding of spin transport signatures and magnetoelectric coupling associated with the Néel vector in AFM systems spanning bulk crystals, epitaxial films, and 2D materials, highlighting the promise of magnetoelectric antiferromagnets for advanced spintronic devices.