Millimeter-sized magnetic domains in perpendicularly magnetized ferrimagnetic Mn4N thin films grown on SrTiO3.

The use of epitaxial layers for domain wall-based spintronic applications is often hampered by the presence of pinning sites. Here, we show that when depositing Mn₄N (10 nm) epitaxial films, the replacement of MgO(001) by SrTiO₃(001) substrates allows minimizing the misfit, and to obtain an improved crystalline quality, a sharper switching, a full remanence, a high anisotropy and remarkable millimeter-sized magnetic domains, with straight and smooth domain walls. In a context of rising interest for current-induced domain wall motion in rare-earth ferrimagnets, we show that Mn₄N/SrTiO₃, which is rare-earth free, constitutes a very promising ferrimagnetic system for current-induced domain wall motion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]