Inertia-driven switching of antiferromagnets via electrically induced Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya torque

Antiferromagnetic insulator has attracted much attention as a promising material for future magnetic devices because of ultrafast, ultralow-dissipation properties. In these materials, precessional switching working on the picosecond time scale is known to occur through strict phase matching between Néel orders l = (s₁+s₂)/2 and driving torques. Here, we report, as being distinct from original switching process, a switching scenario by using the direct coupling of electric field with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction in the centrosymmetric system. Using antiferromagnetic pendulum model, the temporal DM interaction that is induced by pulsed electric field is found to work not only as magnetic torques, as like spin-orbit torque or magnetic field, but also as magnetic potential that limits l’s activity in a given system. Thus, we demonstrate that appropriate control of DM vector determines switching efficiency. Our finding is used widely and necessary for modern electronics as ultrafast electrical manipulation in magnetic system.