Sub-Nanosecond Electrical Pulse Switching of an Easy Plane Antiferromagnetic Insulator

Abstract

Electrical switching of antiferromagnets (AFM) is critical for AFM spintronics. However, electrical pulse-induced Neel vector reorientation in AFM insulators, while predicted to occur at much faster timescales than ferromagnetic switching, has only been demonstrated in the quasi-DC regime. Here we report reliable current-induced AFM switching in Pt/$\alpha$-Fe$_2$O$_3$ bilayers using electrical pulses with various durations spanning three orders of magnitude down to 0.3 ns. Together with COMSOL simulations of temperature distributions in our samples for various pulse widths, our results suggest that thermally-assisted spin-orbit torque likely play an important role for sub-ns pulses. This work demonstrates the viability of electrical switching of AFM spins using sub-ns pulses.