Investigation of Domain Walls in Single Crystal Cr2O3 Using Nitrogen Vacancy Scanning Magnetometry

ORAL

Abstract

Magnetoelectric antiferromagnets are promising candidates for spintronic devices that have been used to demonstrate electrical reading and writing [1]. Chromia, in particular, has drawn attention due to its room temperature ordering. While domain structures in thin-film Cr2O3 have been studied in detail [2], domains in single crystals prove more elusive and less well understood. Second harmonic generation and magnetic force microscopy have been used to study these structures, but these techniques have provided primarily qualitative images [3,4]. Here, we present a quantitative study of domain walls in single crystal chromia using nitrogen vacancy (NV) magnetometry, performed with all-diamond scanning probes, where we make use of the sub 1 uT/√Hz sensitivity and sub 50 nm spatial resolution of these structures to investigate the domain wall properties at the nanoscale. Our measurements demonstrate the unique possibility offered by NV magnetometry to study single crystalline antiferromagnetic systems and reveal fundamental properties of the crystal and its spin textures.


References
1. T. Kosub, et.al., Nat. Commun. 8, 13985 (2017).
2. P. Appel, et.al., Nano Lett. 19, 3 (2019).
3. M. Fiebig, et.al, Appl. Phys. Lett. 66, 2906 (1995).
4. P. Schoenherr, et.al., Materials, 10 1051 (2017).

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Presenters

  • Natascha Hedrich

    Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, Basel 2056, Switzerland, University of Basel

Authors

  • Natascha Hedrich

    Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, Basel 2056, Switzerland, University of Basel

  • Kai Wagner

    Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, Basel 2056, Switzerland

  • Brendan Shields

    Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, Basel 2056, Switzerland, University of Basel

  • Tobias Kosub

    Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf e.V., Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research, 01328, Dresden, Germany

  • Denys Makarov

    Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf e.V., Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research, 01328, Dresden, Germany

  • Patrick Maletinsky

    Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, Basel 2056, Switzerland, University of Basel