Direct visualization and control of antiferromagnetic domains and spin reorientation in a parent cuprate
Abstract
We report magnetic optical second-harmonic generation (SHG) polarimetry and imaging on Sr₂Cu₃O₄Cl₂, which allows direct visualization of the mesoscopic antiferromagnetic (AFM) structure of a parent cuprate. Temperature- and magnetic-field-dependent SHG reveals large domains with 90° relative orientations that are stabilized by a combination of uniaxial magnetic anisotropy and the Earth's magnetic field. Below a temperature T_R ∼ 97 K, we observe an unusual 90° spin-reorientation transition, possibly driven by competing magnetic anisotropies of the two copper sublattices, which swaps the AFM domain states while preserving the domain structure. This allows deterministic switching of the AFM states by thermal or laser heating. Near T_R, the domain walls become exceptionally responsive to an applied magnetic field, with the Earth's field sufficient to completely expel them from the crystal. Our findings unlock opportunities to study the mesoscopic AFM behavior of parent cuprates and explore their potential for AFM technologies.
Additional Information
We acknowledge helpful conversations with D. Silevitch and P. Lee. The SHG measurements were supported by an ARO PECASE Award No. W911NF-17-1-0204. D.H. also acknowledges support for instrumentation from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and from the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter (IQIM), an NSF Physics Frontiers Center (Grant No. PHY-1733907). K.L.S. acknowledges a Caltech Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship. A.R thanks the Zuckerman Foundation, and the Israel Science Foundation (Grant No. 1017/20). The work at Stanford and SLAC (crystal growth and sample characterization) was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division, under Contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 117712
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20221104-609510400.4
- W911NF-17-1-0204
- Army Research Office (ARO)
- David and Lucile Packard Foundation
- PHY-1733907
- NSF
- 1017/20
- Israel Science Foundation
- DE-AC02-76SF00515
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- Institute for Quantum Information and Matter (IQIM)
- Caltech Prize Fellowship
- Mortimer B. Zuckerman STEM Leadership Program
- Created
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2022-11-17Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2022-11-17Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Institute for Quantum Information and Matter