Antiferromagnets have been envisioned as promising candidates for developing high-performance memories with both high speed and high integration density owing to their terahertz spin dynamics and absence of stray fields. Spin-orbit torque (SOT) is an efficient tool to manipulate magnetic orders for not only ferromagnets but also antiferromagnets. Here, we report the observation of anomalous SOT switching in CoO/Pt bilayers. We demonstrate that perpendicular magnetic moments at the CoO/Pt interface can be deterministically switched by an applied current, exhibiting an opposite switching polarity compared to Co/Pt. With alloying effects excluded, the tunability of switching polarity via annealing implies that the phenomenon stems from changes in the interfacial Rashba or built-in electric fields. This work not only enhances our understanding toward complexity of the antiferromagnetic interface but also the SOT effect in antiferromagnetic systems, contributing to advancement of antiferromagnetic spintronic devices.
Lin et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
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