Spin colossal magnetoresistance in an antiferromagnetic insulator

Zhiyong Qiu; Dazhi Hou; Joseph Barker; Kei Yamamoto; Olena Gomonay; Eiji Saitoh

doi:10.1038/s41563-018-0087-4

Spin colossal magnetoresistance in an antiferromagnetic insulator

Nat Mater. 2018 Jul;17(7):577-580. doi: 10.1038/s41563-018-0087-4. Epub 2018 May 28.

Authors

Zhiyong Qiu^{1

2}, Dazhi Hou³, Joseph Barker¹, Kei Yamamoto^{1

4

5

6

7}, Olena Gomonay⁴, Eiji Saitoh^{1

8

7

9}

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
² Key Laboratory of Materials Modification by Laser, Ion, and Electron Beams (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China.
³ WPI Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. dazhi.hou@imr.tohoku.ac.jp.
⁴ Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA.
⁶ Centre of Materials for Information Technology, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA.
⁷ Advanced Science Research Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Tokai, Japan.
⁸ WPI Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
⁹ Department of applied physics, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.

PMID: 29807985
DOI: 10.1038/s41563-018-0087-4

Abstract

Colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) refers to a large change in electrical conductivity induced by a magnetic field in the vicinity of a metal-insulator transition and has inspired extensive studies for decades^1,2. Here we demonstrate an analogous spin effect near the Néel temperature, T_N = 296 K, of the antiferromagnetic insulator Cr₂O₃. Using a yttrium iron garnet YIG/Cr₂O₃/Pt trilayer, we injected a spin current from the YIG into the Cr₂O₃ layer and collected, via the inverse spin Hall effect, the spin signal transmitted into the heavy metal Pt. We observed a two orders of magnitude difference in the transmitted spin current within 14 K of the Néel temperature. This transition between spin conducting and non-conducting states was also modulated by a magnetic field in isothermal conditions. This effect, which we term spin colossal magnetoresistance (SCMR), has the potential to simplify the design of fundamental spintronics components, for instance, by enabling the realization of spin-current switches or spin-current-based memories.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't