Synthetic staggered fields switch Neel vectors probed by magnetic resonance

Abstract

Electrical detection of antiferromagnetic order is a critical challenge for antiferromagnetic spintronics owing to their vanishing macroscopic magnetisation. While magnetic resonance has demonstrated sub-terahertz antiferromagnetic spin pumping and nonlinear magnon dynamics, its application to electrically contacted on-chip devices has room for further exploration. Here we show that magnetic resonance enables direct electrical detection of Néel vector states. A 180^∘ reversal in synthetic antiferromagnets is realised by current-driven effective fields with opposite polarisation acting on each magnetic sublayer, which we term synthetic staggered fields. The switching induces a π phase shift of precessional motion in time, producing hysteretic rectified voltages in our phase-sensitive detection scheme. Angular-dependent resonance analysis offers further insight into the Néel vector directions, pointing to a model beyond the macrospin formalism. We address this by defect-incorporated micromagnetic simulations that reveal fragmented domain states after current excitation. An extracted current density of 7.4×10⁹ A/m² is, to our knowledge, the lowest reported value for the room-temperature Néel vector switching and we show that it scales with the in-plane uniaxial anisotropy both experimentally and numerically. Synthetic staggered fields and the resonance-based methodology provide a research platform for nanoscale characterisation of electrically driven antiferromagnetic textures, guiding the development of high-frequency on-chip spintronic architectures.

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BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@misc{hao2026synthetic,
  title = {{Synthetic staggered fields switch Neel vectors probed by magnetic resonance}},
  author = {Yifang Hao and Zhiyi Che and Jack Brierley and Aakanksha Sud and Satoshi Iihama and Rishi Siddani and Chenghao Yang and Charlie W. F. Freeman and Troy Dion and Daniel Prestwood and Zekun Xue and Tianyi Wei and Murat Cubukcu and Craig Barton and Shunsuke Fukami and Shigemi Mizukami and Hidekazu Kurebayashi},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.34624},
  eprint = {2610.34624},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.34624},
}

RIS

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Synthetic staggered fields switch Neel vectors probed by magnetic resonance
AU  - Yifang Hao
AU  - Zhiyi Che
AU  - Jack Brierley
AU  - Aakanksha Sud
AU  - Satoshi Iihama
AU  - Rishi Siddani
AU  - Chenghao Yang
AU  - Charlie W. F. Freeman
AU  - Troy Dion
AU  - Daniel Prestwood
AU  - Zekun Xue
AU  - Tianyi Wei
AU  - Murat Cubukcu
AU  - Craig Barton
AU  - Shunsuke Fukami
AU  - Shigemi Mizukami
AU  - Hidekazu Kurebayashi
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/25
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.34624
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.34624
AB  - Electrical detection of antiferromagnetic order is a critical challenge for antiferromagnetic spintronics owing to their vanishing macroscopic magnetisation. While magnetic resonance has demonstrated sub-terahertz antiferromagnetic spin pumping and nonlinear magnon dynamics, its application to electrically contacted on-chip devices has room for further exploration. Here we show that magnetic resonance enables direct electrical detection of Néel vector states. A 180^∘ reversal in synthetic antiferromagnets is realised by current-driven effective fields with opposite polarisation acting on each magnetic sublayer, which we term synthetic staggered fields. The switching induces a π phase shift of precessional motion in time, producing hysteretic rectified voltages in our phase-sensitive detection scheme. Angular-dependent resonance analysis offers further insight into the Néel vector directions, pointing to a model beyond the macrospin formalism. We address this by defect-incorporated micromagnetic simulations that reveal fragmented domain states after current excitation. An extracted current density of 7.4×10^9 A/m^2 is, to our knowledge, the lowest reported value for the room-temperature Néel vector switching and we show that it scales with the in-plane uniaxial anisotropy both experimentally and numerically. Synthetic staggered fields and the resonance-based methodology provide a research platform for nanoscale characterisation of electrically driven antiferromagnetic textures, guiding the development of high-frequency on-chip spintronic architectures.
ER  -

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