Development of Antiferromagnetic Heusler Alloys for the Replacement of Iridium as a Critically Raw Material

Atsufumi Hirohata; Teodor Huminiuc; John Sinclair; Haokaifeng Wu; Marjan Samiepour; Gonzalo Vallejo Fernandez; Kevin Dermot O'Grady; Jan Balluff; Markus Meinert; Guenter Reiss; Eszter Simon; Sergii Khmelevskyi; Laszlo Szunyogh; Rocio Yanes Díaz; Ulrich Nowak; Tomoki Tsuchiya; Tomoko Sugiyama; Takahide Kubota; Koki Takanashi; Nobuhito Inami; Kanta Ono

Development of Antiferromagnetic Heusler Alloys for the Replacement of Iridium as a Critically Raw Material

Atsufumi Hirohata, Teodor Huminiuc, John Sinclair, Haokaifeng Wu, Marjan Samiepour, Gonzalo Vallejo Fernandez, Kevin Dermot O'Grady, Jan Balluff, Markus Meinert, Guenter Reiss, Eszter Simon, Sergii Khmelevskyi, Laszlo Szunyogh, Rocio Yanes Díaz, Ulrich Nowak, Tomoki Tsuchiya, Tomoko Sugiyama, Takahide Kubota, Koki Takanashi, Nobuhito InamiKanta Ono

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

As a platinum group metal, iridium (Ir) is the scarcest element on the earth but it has been widely used as an antiferromagnetic layer in magnetic recording, crucibles and spark plugs due to its high melting point. In magnetic recording, antiferromagnetic layers have been used to pin its neighbouring ferromagnetic layer in a spin-valve read head in a hard disk drive for example. Recently, antiferromagnetic layers have also been found to induce a spin-polarised electrical current. In these devices, the most commonly used antiferromagnet is an Ir-Mn alloy because of its corrosion resistance and the reliable magnetic pinning of adjacent ferromagnetic layers. It is therefore crucial to explore new antiferromagnetic materials without critical raw materials. In this review, recent research on new antiferromagnetic Heusler compounds and their exchange interactions along the plane normal is discussed. These new antiferromagnets are characterised by very sensitive magnetic and electrical measurement techniques recently developed to determine their characteristic temperatures together with atomic structural analysis. Mn-based alloys are found to be most promising based on their robustness against atomic disordering and large pinning strength up to 1.4 kOe, which is comparable with that for Ir-Mn. The search for new antiferromagnetic films and their characterisation are useful for further miniaturisation and development of spintronic devices in a sustainable manner.

Original language	English
Article number	443001
Pages (from-to)	1-15
Number of pages	15
Journal	Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics
Volume	50
Early online date	27 Sept 2017
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 27 Sept 2017

Bibliographical note

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© 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd
Accepted author manuscript, 2.98 MBLicence: CC BY
Hirohata_2017_J._Phys._D__Appl._Phys._50_443001
© 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd .
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Cite this

Hirohata, A., Huminiuc, T., Sinclair, J., Wu, H., Samiepour, M., Vallejo Fernandez, G., O'Grady, K. D., Balluff, J., Meinert, M., Reiss, G., Simon, E., Khmelevskyi, S., Szunyogh, L., Yanes Díaz, R., Nowak, U., Tsuchiya, T., Sugiyama, T., Kubota, T., Takanashi, K., ... Ono, K. (2017). Development of Antiferromagnetic Heusler Alloys for the Replacement of Iridium as a Critically Raw Material. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 50, 1-15. Article 443001. Advance online publication.

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title = "Development of Antiferromagnetic Heusler Alloys for the Replacement of Iridium as a Critically Raw Material",

abstract = "As a platinum group metal, iridium (Ir) is the scarcest element on the earth but it has been widely used as an antiferromagnetic layer in magnetic recording, crucibles and spark plugs due to its high melting point. In magnetic recording, antiferromagnetic layers have been used to pin its neighbouring ferromagnetic layer in a spin-valve read head in a hard disk drive for example. Recently, antiferromagnetic layers have also been found to induce a spin-polarised electrical current. In these devices, the most commonly used antiferromagnet is an Ir-Mn alloy because of its corrosion resistance and the reliable magnetic pinning of adjacent ferromagnetic layers. It is therefore crucial to explore new antiferromagnetic materials without critical raw materials. In this review, recent research on new antiferromagnetic Heusler compounds and their exchange interactions along the plane normal is discussed. These new antiferromagnets are characterised by very sensitive magnetic and electrical measurement techniques recently developed to determine their characteristic temperatures together with atomic structural analysis. Mn-based alloys are found to be most promising based on their robustness against atomic disordering and large pinning strength up to 1.4 kOe, which is comparable with that for Ir-Mn. The search for new antiferromagnetic films and their characterisation are useful for further miniaturisation and development of spintronic devices in a sustainable manner.",

author = "Atsufumi Hirohata and Teodor Huminiuc and John Sinclair and Haokaifeng Wu and Marjan Samiepour and {Vallejo Fernandez}, Gonzalo and O'Grady, {Kevin Dermot} and Jan Balluff and Markus Meinert and Guenter Reiss and Eszter Simon and Sergii Khmelevskyi and Laszlo Szunyogh and {Yanes D{\'i}az}, Rocio and Ulrich Nowak and Tomoki Tsuchiya and Tomoko Sugiyama and Takahide Kubota and Koki Takanashi and Nobuhito Inami and Kanta Ono",

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Hirohata, A, Huminiuc, T, Sinclair, J, Wu, H, Samiepour, M, Vallejo Fernandez, G , O'Grady, KD, Balluff, J, Meinert, M, Reiss, G, Simon, E, Khmelevskyi, S, Szunyogh, L, Yanes Díaz, R, Nowak, U, Tsuchiya, T, Sugiyama, T, Kubota, T, Takanashi, K, Inami, N & Ono, K 2017, 'Development of Antiferromagnetic Heusler Alloys for the Replacement of Iridium as a Critically Raw Material', Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, vol. 50, 443001, pp. 1-15.

TY - JOUR

T1 - Development of Antiferromagnetic Heusler Alloys for the Replacement of Iridium as a Critically Raw Material

AU - Hirohata, Atsufumi

AU - Huminiuc, Teodor

AU - Sinclair, John

AU - Wu, Haokaifeng

AU - Samiepour, Marjan

AU - Vallejo Fernandez, Gonzalo

AU - O'Grady, Kevin Dermot

AU - Balluff, Jan

AU - Meinert, Markus

AU - Reiss, Guenter

AU - Simon, Eszter

AU - Khmelevskyi, Sergii

AU - Szunyogh, Laszlo

AU - Yanes Díaz, Rocio

AU - Nowak, Ulrich

AU - Tsuchiya, Tomoki

AU - Sugiyama, Tomoko

AU - Kubota, Takahide

AU - Takanashi, Koki

AU - Inami, Nobuhito

AU - Ono, Kanta

PY - 2017/9/27

Y1 - 2017/9/27

N2 - As a platinum group metal, iridium (Ir) is the scarcest element on the earth but it has been widely used as an antiferromagnetic layer in magnetic recording, crucibles and spark plugs due to its high melting point. In magnetic recording, antiferromagnetic layers have been used to pin its neighbouring ferromagnetic layer in a spin-valve read head in a hard disk drive for example. Recently, antiferromagnetic layers have also been found to induce a spin-polarised electrical current. In these devices, the most commonly used antiferromagnet is an Ir-Mn alloy because of its corrosion resistance and the reliable magnetic pinning of adjacent ferromagnetic layers. It is therefore crucial to explore new antiferromagnetic materials without critical raw materials. In this review, recent research on new antiferromagnetic Heusler compounds and their exchange interactions along the plane normal is discussed. These new antiferromagnets are characterised by very sensitive magnetic and electrical measurement techniques recently developed to determine their characteristic temperatures together with atomic structural analysis. Mn-based alloys are found to be most promising based on their robustness against atomic disordering and large pinning strength up to 1.4 kOe, which is comparable with that for Ir-Mn. The search for new antiferromagnetic films and their characterisation are useful for further miniaturisation and development of spintronic devices in a sustainable manner.

AB - As a platinum group metal, iridium (Ir) is the scarcest element on the earth but it has been widely used as an antiferromagnetic layer in magnetic recording, crucibles and spark plugs due to its high melting point. In magnetic recording, antiferromagnetic layers have been used to pin its neighbouring ferromagnetic layer in a spin-valve read head in a hard disk drive for example. Recently, antiferromagnetic layers have also been found to induce a spin-polarised electrical current. In these devices, the most commonly used antiferromagnet is an Ir-Mn alloy because of its corrosion resistance and the reliable magnetic pinning of adjacent ferromagnetic layers. It is therefore crucial to explore new antiferromagnetic materials without critical raw materials. In this review, recent research on new antiferromagnetic Heusler compounds and their exchange interactions along the plane normal is discussed. These new antiferromagnets are characterised by very sensitive magnetic and electrical measurement techniques recently developed to determine their characteristic temperatures together with atomic structural analysis. Mn-based alloys are found to be most promising based on their robustness against atomic disordering and large pinning strength up to 1.4 kOe, which is comparable with that for Ir-Mn. The search for new antiferromagnetic films and their characterisation are useful for further miniaturisation and development of spintronic devices in a sustainable manner.

M3 - Article

SN - 1361-6463

VL - 50

SP - 1

EP - 15

JO - Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics

JF - Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics

M1 - 443001

ER -