Anisotropic Magnetoresistance and Nontrivial Spin Magnetoresistance in Pt/<i>α</i>-Fe₂O₃ Bilayers

Recently antiferromagnetic insulators(AFM) play an import role in spintronic research including the spin superfluid and long distance spin transport. However, magnetic proximity effect (MPE) has not been conclusively observed in antiferromagnet based systems. In this work, we observed anomalous Hall effect and anisotropic magnetoresistance in angular dependent magnetoresistance (ADMR) measurements in Pt on antiferromagnetic (AF) α-Fe2O3(0001) epitaxial thin films at 10 K, which provide evidence for the MPE[1]. The Néel order of α-Fe2O3 and the induced magnetization in Pt show a unique ADMR compared with all other FM and AF systems. A macrospin response model is established and can explain the AF spin configuration and all main ADMR features in the Pt/α-Fe2O3 bilayers.

[1] Cheng, Yang, et al. "Anisotropic Magnetoresistance and Nontrivial Spin Magnetoresistance in Pt/ α -Fe2O3 Bilayers: Evidence for Antiferromagnetic Proximity Effect." arXiv preprint arXiv:1906.04395 (2019).