Electrical manipulation of spins is essential to design state-of-the-art spintronic devices and commonly relies on the spin current injected from a second heavy-metal material. The fact that chiral antiferromagnets produce spin current inspires us to explore the magnetization switching of chiral spins using self-generated spin torque. Here, we demonstrate the electric switching of noncollinear antiferromagnetic state in Mn3Sn by observing a crossover from conventional spin-orbit torque to the self-generated spin torque when increasing the MgO thickness in Ta/MgO/Mn3Sn polycrystalline films. The spin current injection from the Ta layer can be controlled and even blocked by varying the MgO thickness, but the switching sustains even at a large MgO thickness. Furthermore, the switching polarity reverses when the MgO thickness exceeds around 3 nm, which cannot be explained by the spin-orbit torque scenario due to spin current injection from the Ta layer. Evident current-induced switching is also observed in MgO/Mn3Sn and Ti/Mn3Sn bilayers, where external injection of spin Hall current to Mn3Sn is negligible. The inter-grain spin-transfer torque induced by spin-polarized current explains the experimental observations. Our findings provide an alternative pathway for electrical manipulation of non-collinear antiferromagnetic state without resorting to the conventional bilayer structure.
We present a rolled-up approach to form Ge microtubes and their array by rolling-up hybrid Ge/Cr nanomembranes, which is driven by the built-in stress in the deposited Cr layer. The study of Raman intensity as a function of the angle between the crystal-axis and the polarization-direction of the scattered light, i.e., polarized Raman measurement reveals that the strain state in Ge tube is uniaxial and tensile, and can reach a maximal value 1.0%. Both experimental observations and theoretical calculations suggest that the uniaxial-tensile strain residual in the rolled-up Ge tubes correlates with their tube diameters, which can be tuned by the thicknesses of the Cr layers deposited. Using the polarized Raman scattering spectroscopy, our study provides a comprehensive analysis of the strain state and evolution in self-rolled-up nano/micro-tubes.
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