GoKawiilResearchers demonstrate current-driven switching in antiferromagnetic tunnel junctions
A research team built nanoscale all-antiferromagnetic tunnel junctions using PtMn3|MgO|PtMn3 layers and showed they can be switched by an electric current via a newly identified effect called octupole-driven spin-transfer torque (OTT). The devices achieved a tunnelling magnetoresistance of 363% at room temperature, with switching current densities around 10 MA per square centimetre.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The finding overturns the prior assumption that antiferromagnets, lacking net magnetization, could not support a spin-transfer-torque-like switching mechanism, since their total electric current carries no net spin. According to the researchers, the effect arises from an imbalance between intra- and inter-sublattice spin currents tied to the material's octupole magnetic order, suggesting a new route to building denser, faster magnetic memory and terahertz-frequency spintronic devices that operate at room temperature.
- Scientists observed a previously unseen 'octupole-driven spin-transfer torque' effect in antiferromagnetic tunnel junctions
- PtMn3|MgO|PtMn3 junctions showed 363% tunnelling magnetoresistance at room temperature with switchable current densities near 10 MA/cm²
- The result opens a potential materials platform for scaled-down magnetic memory and terahertz spintronic applications
Source: nature.com — Kang, 2026-10-21
Published there as: “Octupole-driven spin torque switching of antiferromagnetic tunnel junctions”
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