What is it about?
Certain antiferromagnets may demonstrate unusual physical phenomena, due to their symmetry-breaking magnetic structure. This particular antiferromagnet, Mn3NiN, shows the anomalous Nernst effect, whereby a thermal gradient is converted into an electric voltage. Unusually, this material shows a voltage signal in two perpendicular directions simultaneously. Using a scanning laser to create a local heat gradient, we measure these two voltages, and find regions that are associated with the magnetic domains in the sample.
Featured Image
Photo by Opt Lasers on Unsplash
Why is it important?
From a fundamental physics perspective, this work elegantly reveals the direct link between the intrinsic anomalous Nernst effect and the underlying magnetic symmetries present in the material. From a practical perspective, identifying and manipulating antiferromagnetic domains is a key goal for next-generation computing devices.
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Identifying the octupole antiferromagnetic domain orientation in Mn3NiN by scanning anomalous Nernst effect microscopy, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, June 2022, American Institute of Physics,
DOI: 10.1063/5.0091257.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page