Mechanical resonant sensing of spin texture dynamics in a two-dimensional antiferromagnet

Abstract

The coupling between the spin degrees of freedom and macroscopic mechanical motions, including striction, shearing, and rotation, has attracted wide interest with applications in actuation, transduction, and information processing. Experiments so far have established the mechanical responses to the long-range ordered or isolated single spin states. However, it remains elusive whether mechanical motions can couple to a different type of magnetic structure, the non-collinear spin textures, which exhibit nanoscale spatial variations of spin (domain walls, skyrmions, etc.) and are promising candidates to realize high-speed computing devices. Here, we report the detection of collective spin texture dynamics with nanoelectromechanical resonators made of two-dimensional antiferromagnetic (AFM) MnPS3 with $10^{-9}$ strain sensitivity. By examining radio frequency mechanical oscillations under magnetic fields, new magnetic transitions were identified with sharp dips in resonant frequency. They are attributed to the collective AFM domain wall motions as supported by the analytical modeling of magnetostriction and large-scale spin-dynamics simulations. Additionally, an abnormally large modulation in the mechanical nonlinearity at the transition field infers a fluid-like response due to the ultrafast domain motion. Our work establishes a strong coupling between spin texture and mechanical dynamics, laying the foundation for electromechanical manipulation of spin texture and developing quantum hybrid devices.