![\"Figure](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/e111_1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe magnetizations of the two sublattices that make up an antiferromagnet point in opposite directions, cancelling each other out. But if one of the sublattices breaks inversion symmetry, then flipping both yields a configuration that has different transport properties. With that difference comes the possibility of exploiting antiferromagnets to store and process information. Now Martin Jourdan of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany and his collaborators have found that two different magnetization-flipping mechanisms operate on different timescales [1<\/a>]. Their results suggest that the flipping mechanism has been misidentified in previous studies.<\/p>\n Researchers usually aim to flip an antiferromagnet between states by applying pulses of spin-polarized current. These currents cause the sublattice magnetizations to twist into new configurations via a phenomenon known as spin\u2013orbit torque (SOT). However, it was recently found that, if the pulses are long enough, the mechanical strain caused by resistive heating can snap the sublattices into new configurations with or without SOT.<\/p>\n Jourdan and his collaborators investigated these mechanisms in thin films of the antiferromagnet Mn2Au. This material is triply advantageous for such studies: It\u2019s a conductor, its manganese sublattices break inversion symmetry, and its gold sublattices host electrons whose strong spin\u2013orbit coupling makes them especially sensitive to SOT.<\/p>\n The team distinguished between the two flipping mechanisms by measuring the magnetic domain patterns after applying current pulses with different orientations. SOT-induced flipping is sensitive to the current orientation; heating-induced flipping is not. The researchers found that pulses of 2.5 nanoseconds (ns) yielded the SOT pattern, whereas pulses of 100 ns and longer yielded the other, thermomagnetoelastic pattern. Jourdan says that previous experiments have all used current pulses longer than 1 microsecond, so they were probably in the latter regime.<\/p>\n \u2013Charles Day<\/p>\n Charles Day is a Senior Editor for Physics\u00a0Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n ReferencesM. Jourdan et al., \u201cIdentifying switching of antiferromagnets by spin-orbit torques,\u201d Phys. Rev. B 112, 104408 (2025)<\/a>.Identifying switching of antiferromagnets by spin-orbit torques<\/a><\/p>\n Martin Jourdan, Jonathan Bl\u00e4\u00dfer, Guzm\u00e1n Orero G\u00e1mez, Sonka Reimers, Lukas Odenbreit, Miriam Fischer, Yuran R. Niu, Evangelos Golias, Francesco Maccherozzi, Armin Kleibert, Hermann Stoll, and Mathias Kl\u00e4ui<\/p>\n Phys. Rev. B 112, 104408 (2025)<\/a><\/p>\n Published September 4, 2025<\/p>\n Subject AreasRelated Articles Pairs of skyrmions\u2014tiny whirlpools that emerge in some magnetic materials\u2014might be able to self-propel, a behavior reminiscent of that of active-matter systems such as motile bacteria. Read More \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>Condensed Matter PhysicsSkyrmions as Active Matter<\/a>August 18, 2025<\/p>\n<\/a> More Articles<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"September 4, 2025• Physics 18, s111 Two main mechanisms can flip the orientation of antiferromagnetic domains. Researchers have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[49,48,314,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-121421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-physics","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}