Electrical 180o switching of N\'eel vector in spin-splitting antiferromagnet

Abstract

Antiferromagnetic spintronics have attracted wide attention due to its great potential in constructing ultra-dense and ultra-fast antiferromagnetic memory that suits modern high-performance information technology. The electrical 180o switching of N\'eel vector is a long-term goal for developing electrical-controllable antiferromagnetic memory with opposite N\'eel vectors as binary "0" and "1". However, the state-of-art antiferromagnetic switching mechanisms have long been limited for 90o or 120o switching of N\'eel vector, which unavoidably require multiple writing channels that contradicts ultra-dense integration. Here, we propose a deterministic switching mechanism based on spin-orbit torque with asymmetric energy barrier, and experimentally achieve electrical 180o switching of spin-splitting antiferromagnet Mn5Si3. Such a 180o switching is read out by the N\'eel vector-induced anomalous Hall effect. Based on our writing and readout methods, we fabricate an antiferromagnet device with electrical-controllable high and low resistance states that accomplishes robust write and read cycles. Besides fundamental advance, our work promotes practical spin-splitting antiferromagnetic devices based on spin-splitting antiferromagnet.