Electrical manipulation of antiferromagnetic states, a cornerstone of antiferromagnetic spintronics, is a great challenge, requiring novel material platforms. Here we report the full control over antiferromagnetic states by voltage pulses in the insulating Co3O4 spinel. We show that the strong linear magnetoelectric effect emerging in its antiferromagnetic state is fully governed by the orientation of the N\'eel vector. As a unique feature of Co3O4, the magnetoelectric energy can easily overcome the weak magnetocrystalline anisotropy, thus, the N\'eel vector can be manipulated on demand, either rotated smoothly or reversed suddenly, by combined electric and magnetic fields. We succeed with switching between antiferromagnetic states of opposite N\'eel vectors by voltage pulses within a few microsecond in macroscopic volumes. These observations render quasi-cubic antiferromagnets, like Co3O4, an ideal platform for the ultrafast (pico- to nanosecond) manipulation of microscopic antiferromagnetic domains and may pave the way for the realization of antiferromagnetic spintronic devices.
@article{arxiv.2304.12270,
title = {Fast non-volatile electric control of antiferromagnetic states},
author = {Somnath Ghara and Maximilian Winkler and Korbinian Geirhos and Lilian Prodan and Vladimir Tsurkan and Stephan Krohns and István Kézsmárki},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2304.12270},
year = {2023}
}