Piezomagnetic switching of the anomalous Hall conductivity in an antiferromagnet at room temperature

Piezomagnetism couples strain linearly to magnetic order, implying that it can produce and control magnetization. However, unlike magnetostriction, which couples magnetization quadratically to strain, it enables bidirectional control of a net magnetic moment. If this effect becomes large at room temperature, it may be technologically relevant, similar to its electric analogue, piezoelectricity. However, current studies of the piezomagnetic effect have been primarily restricted to antiferromagnetic insulators at cryogenic temperatures. Here we report the observation of strong piezomagnetism in the antiferromagnetic Weyl semimetal Mn₃Sn at room temperature. This material is known for its nearly magnetization-free anomalous Hall effect. We find that a small uniaxial strain on the order of 0.1% can control both the sign and size of the anomalous Hall effect. Our experiment and theory based on a Landau free energy functional show that the piezomagnetism can control the anomalous Hall effect, which will be useful for spintronics applications.