Direct imaging of antiferromagnetic domains in Mn$_2$Au manipulated by high magnetic fields

Abstract

In the field of antiferromagnetic (AFM) spintronics, information about the Néel vector, AFM domain sizes, and spin-flop fields is a prerequisite for device applications but is not available easily. We have investigated AFM domains and spin-flop induced changes of domain patterns in Mn2Au(001) epitaxial thin films by X-ray magnetic linear dichroism photoemission electron microscopy (XMLD-PEEM) using magnetic fields up to 70 T. As-prepared Mn$_2$Au films exhibit AFM domains with an average size $\sim$ 1 $μ$m. Application of a 30T field, exceeding the spin-flop field, along a magnetocrystalline easy axis, dramatically increases the AFM domain size with Néel vectors perpendicular to the applied field direction. The width of Néel type domain walls (DW) is below the spatial resolution of the PEEM and therefore can only be estimated from an analysis of the DW profile to be smaller than 80 nm. Furthermore, using the values for the DW width and the spin-flop field, we evaluate an in-plane anisotropy constant ranging between 1 and 17 $μ$eV/f.u.