Spin Hall magnetoresistance in antiferromagnet/heavy-metal heterostructures

2017

We investigate the spin Hall magnetoresistance in thin-film bilayer heterostructures of the heavy metal Pt and the antiferromagnetic insulator NiO. While rotating an external magnetic field in the easy plane of NiO, we record the longitudinal and the transverse resistivity of the Pt layer and observe an amplitude modulation consistent with the spin Hall magnetoresistance. In comparison to Pt on collinear ferrimagnets, the modulation is phase shifted by ${90}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$ and its amplitude strongly increases with the magnitude of the magnetic field. We explain the observed magnetic field dependence of the spin Hall magnetoresistance in a comprehensive model taking into account magne…