Enabling Electrical Readout of Néel vector reversal in a van der Waals Antiferromagnet

Abstract

Owing to its robustness against external perturbations and intrinsically ultrafast dynamics, the Néel vector in antiferromagnets (AFMs) can enable the development of next-generation spintronic and magnonic devices for memory and computing applications. To realize AFM-based magnetic memory devices, one of the key requirements is to demonstrate electrical readout of 180-degree reversal of Néel vector in thin film AFMs, which remains critically missing. In this work, we report experimental demonstration of a novel transport methodology to detect Néel vector reversal in atomically thin films of a van der Waals (vdW) based A-type AFM. For this, we utilize spin-dependent electronic band properties of CrSBr by coupling it to a spin-polarized layer, separated by a tunnel barrier. In this configuration, the spin-dependent tunnelling magnetoresistance (MR) becomes sensitive to the relative orientation between the magnetization of the reference electrode and the interfacial sublattice magnetization of the AFM layer, in turn enabling electrical detection of the Néel vector orientation. Importantly, the observed MR can also reveal 180-degree reversal of Néel vector in even-layers of CrSBr, wherein adjacent sublattice magnetic layers are exactly compensated and the net magnetization vanishes and thus establishes a broadly applicable strategy for electrical detection of Néel vector in vdW-based AFMs.