Easy moment direction and antiferromagnetic domain wall motion in Mn2Au

The interest of giving active functions to antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials in spintronics devices has been realized recently. Mn2Au is a high-Néel temperature antiferromagnet with large Mn moment, lying in plane of the tetragonal structure. To determine the direction of the moments in Mn2Au, an original approach is demonstrated, which should be generic to planar AFM materials. It involves the rotation of the granular sample around an axis perpendicular to the applied magnetic field. The family of easy moment directions is 〈110〉. For grains prevented from rotating, the dominant magnetization process is AFM domain wall motion. Textured Mn2Au nanoelements could be introduced in spintronics devices, in which the Mn moments would be switched under modest external excitation.