The manipulation of antiferromagnetic order by means of spin-orbit torques opens unprecedented opportunities to exploit the dynamics of antiferromagnets in spintronic devices. In this work, we investigate the current-induced switching of the magnetic octupole vector in the Weyl antiferromagnet Mn3Sn as a function of pulse shape, field, temperature, and time. We find that the switching behavior can be either bistable or tristable depending on the temporal structure of the current pulses. Time-resolved Hall effect measurements reveal that Mn3Sn switching proceeds via a two-step demagnetization-remagnetization process caused by self-heating over a timescale of tens of ns followed by cooling in the presence of spin-orbit torques. Our results shed light on the switching dynamics of Mn3Sn and prove the existence of extrinsic limits on its switching speed.
@article{arxiv.2205.05309,
title = {Time-dependent multistate switching of topological antiferromagnetic order in Mn$_3$Sn},
author = {Gunasheel Kauwtilyaa Krishnaswamy and Giacomo Sala and Benjamin Jacot and Richard Schlitz and Charles-Henri Lambert and Paul Noel and Pietro Gambardella},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.05309},
year = {2022}
}