Advances in spintronics have led to the practical use of magnetoresistive random-access memory (MRAM), a non-volatile memory technology that supports energy-efficient semiconductor integrated circuits. Recently, antiferromagnets─magnetic materials with no net magnetization─have attracted growing attention as promising complements to conventional ferromagnets. While their properties have been extensively studied, clear demonstrations of their technological advantages have remained elusive.

Now, researchers from Tohoku University, the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) have provided the first compelling evidence of the unique benefits of antiferromagnets. Their study shows that antiferromagnets enable high-speed, high-efficiency memory operations in the gigahertz range, outperforming their ferromagnetic counterparts. The findings were published in the journal Science on August 21, 2025.

Yuta Yamane, an associate professor and TI-FRIS Fellow at Tohoku University's Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences (FRIS) joined the research team as one of the corresponding authors.

Figure: (a) Schematic illustration of memory device consisting of chiral antiferromagnet Mn3Sn / nonmagnetic metal heterostructure (b) A scanning electron microscope image of the fabricated device with Mn3Sn nanodot and nonmagnetic metal channel. ©Yutaro Takeuchi et al.

Publication Details:

Title: Electrical coherent driving of chiral antiferromagnet

Authors: Yutaro Takeuchi, Yuma Sato, Yuta Yamane, Ju-Young Yoon, Yukinori Kanno, Tomohiro Uchimura, K. Vihanga De Zoysa, Jiahao Han, Shun Kanai, Jun'ichi Ieda, Hideo Ohno, and Shunsuke Fukami

Journal: Science

DOI: 10.1126/science.ado1611

http://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado1611