Antiferromagnetic L10 MnPt thin films

Antiferromagnets are magnetically ordered, but neighboring magnetic moments point in opposite directions, which results in zero net magnetization. This property makes them promising for future spintronic applications, since antiferromagnets produce no stray fields and are insensitive to external magnetic field perturbations. In addition, they show intrinsic dynamics in the terahertz range and exhibit considerable spin-orbit and magneto-transport effects. The above could allow the creation of high-density memories with no inter-bit dipole interactions and fast write times, as well as the development of compact room-temperature terahertz sources and detectors1,2. In this work, we will present the investigation of L10 MnPt antiferromagnetic thin films. The films consist of Pt/Mn multilayers, sputter-deposited onto commercial oxidized Si wafers. X-ray diffraction (XRD) characterization shows the emergence of the chemically-ordered L10 MnPt crystal structure after annealing the samples at temperatures 400oC or higher (see figure 1). Secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) shows the layered structure of the as-deposited stack, which thereafter transforms into an alloy film after annealing (see figure 2). Our initial findings are promising and static magnetic characterization by means of magnetometry and magnetic force microscopy will be also presented