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Ultrafast time-resolved observation of non-thermal current-induced switching in an antiferromagnetic Weyl semimetal

Nature Materials (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Antiferromagnets have gained a growing interest for next-generation spintronic applications. Among them, the antiferromagnetic Weyl semimetal Mn3Sn stands out because of its electrical and magnetic properties driven by its non-collinear spin structure at room temperature. Despite research progress on the current-induced switching of the magnetic octupole in Mn3Sn, the ultrafast switching inherent to the antiferromagnet remains to be resolved, and the underlying mechanism is yet elusive. Here we measure the spatiotemporally resolved current-induced switching dynamics in polycrystalline Mn3Sn films using ultrafast magneto-optical Kerr effect imaging, with current pulses as short as 140 ps. Our results directly reveal two distinct switching regimes depending on the intensity and duration of the current pulse: a non-thermal process that does not require the transient melting of antiferromagnetic order, and a temperature-assisted process that relies on heating above the magnetic ordering temperature. Our work highlights the potential of Mn3Sn towards ultrafast magnetic recording devices.

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Fig. 1: Experimental setup and device characteristics.
Fig. 2: Current-induced switching dynamics of Mn3Sn films.
Fig. 3: Current amplitude dependence of current-induced dynamics.
Fig. 4: In-plane magnetic field dependence of current-induced dynamics.

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Data availability

Data that support the findings of this work are available in the Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a JST-MIRAI program (JPMJMI20A1). K.O. acknowledges financial support from JSPS KAKENHI (grant number JP24KJ0653). We are grateful to K. Kondo for fruitful discussions.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Tomoya Higo

    Present address: Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Keio University, Yokohama, Japan

  2. These authors contributed equally: Kazuma Ogawa, Hanshen Tsai.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Japan

    Kazuma Ogawa, Hanshen Tsai, Naotaka Yoshikawa, Takumi Matsuo, Yutaro Tsushima, Mihiro Asakura, Hanyi Peng, Takuya Matsuda, Tomoya Higo, Satoru Nakatsuji & Ryo Shimano

  2. Institute for Quantum Matter and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Takumi Matsuo & Satoru Nakatsuji

  3. The Institute for Solid State Physics, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan

    Tomoya Higo & Satoru Nakatsuji

  4. Trans-scale Quantum Science Institute, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Japan

    Satoru Nakatsuji & Ryo Shimano

  5. Cryogenic Research Center, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Japan

    Ryo Shimano

Authors
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Contributions

K.O. carried out the optical experiments and analysed the data. K.O. and N.Y. developed the ultrafast TR-MOKE measurement system under the supervision of R.S. H.T. and T. Matsuda optimized the device structure for the TR-MOKE measurements with feedback from K.O., S.N. and R.S. T. Matsuo, Y.T., M.A., H.P. and T.H. grew and characterized the thin films. H.T. fabricated the Hall-bar devices and conducted the transport measurements of current-induced switching phenomena under the supervision of S.N. S.N. and R.S. conceived the project of this study. K.O. and R.S. wrote the manuscript with feedback from all co-authors.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Kazuma Ogawa or Ryo Shimano.

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Nature Materials thanks Davide Bossini, Zhiqi Liu and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Ogawa, K., Tsai, H., Yoshikawa, N. et al. Ultrafast time-resolved observation of non-thermal current-induced switching in an antiferromagnetic Weyl semimetal. Nat. Mater. (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-025-02402-8

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