Tailoring elastic and inelastic collisions of relativistic antiferromagnetic domain walls

Abstract

Abstract Soliton-based computing relies on their unique properties for transporting energy and emerging intact from head-on collisions. Magnetic domain walls are often referred to as solitons disregarding the strict mathematical definition requiring the above scattering property. Here we demonstrate the conditions of elastic and inelastic scattering for spin–orbit torque-induced dynamics of relativistic domain walls on the technologically relevant Mn $$_2$$ 2 Au antiferromagnetic material. We show that even domain walls with opposite winding numbers can experience elastic scattering and we present the corresponding phase diagram as a function of the spin–orbit field strength and duration. The elastic collision requires minimum domain walls speed, which we explain assuming an attractive potential created by domain wall pair. On the contrary, when the domain walls move at lower speeds, their collision is inelastic and results in a dispersing breather. Our findings will be important for the development of soliton-based computing using antiferromagnetic spintronics and we discuss their prospects for building NOT and XOR gates.