TY - JOUR
T1 - Fabrication of polycrystalline Weyl antiferromagnetic Mn3Sn thin films on various seed layers
AU - Nakano, Takafumi
AU - Higo, Tomoya
AU - Kobayashi, Ayuko
AU - Miwa, Shinji
AU - Nakatsuji, Satoru
AU - Yakushiji, Kay
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Prof. YoshiChika Otani for fruitful discussions. This work was supported in part by CREST (Grant No. JPMJCR18T3), Japan Science and Technology Agency.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Physical Society.
PY - 2021/5
Y1 - 2021/5
N2 - To develop a high-quality Weyl magnet Mn3Sn thin film, polycrystalline Mn-Sn was sputter deposited onto an fcc or hexagonal close-packed metallic seed layer of Pt, Cu, Ir, Ru, Cr, or Al. Among the tested seed materials, Pt and Cu enabled fabrication of highly c-plane oriented textured D019-type Mn3Sn films with a smooth surface (mean roughness below 0.3 nm) after postannealing at 350°C or below. The Mn3Sn films exhibited substantial signals of the anomalous Nernst effect (ANE), which is one characteristic of a Weyl magnet. Microstructural analysis revealed that the Cu seed layer significantly diffused into the Mn3Sn layer during postannealing, while the Pt seed layer changed little. The results suggested that a small amount of Cu mixture (up to 2.5 at. %) did not degrade the ANE signal but effectively lowered the postannealing temperature to form the D019 structure. The developed films and techniques are beneficial for antiferromagnetic spintronics in terms of the smoothness and process consistency in a standard process for magnetic random-access memory.
AB - To develop a high-quality Weyl magnet Mn3Sn thin film, polycrystalline Mn-Sn was sputter deposited onto an fcc or hexagonal close-packed metallic seed layer of Pt, Cu, Ir, Ru, Cr, or Al. Among the tested seed materials, Pt and Cu enabled fabrication of highly c-plane oriented textured D019-type Mn3Sn films with a smooth surface (mean roughness below 0.3 nm) after postannealing at 350°C or below. The Mn3Sn films exhibited substantial signals of the anomalous Nernst effect (ANE), which is one characteristic of a Weyl magnet. Microstructural analysis revealed that the Cu seed layer significantly diffused into the Mn3Sn layer during postannealing, while the Pt seed layer changed little. The results suggested that a small amount of Cu mixture (up to 2.5 at. %) did not degrade the ANE signal but effectively lowered the postannealing temperature to form the D019 structure. The developed films and techniques are beneficial for antiferromagnetic spintronics in terms of the smoothness and process consistency in a standard process for magnetic random-access memory.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.5.054402
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.5.054402
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85106367600
VL - 5
JO - Physical Review Materials
JF - Physical Review Materials
SN - 2475-9953
IS - 5
M1 - 054402
ER -