Antiferromagnets (AFMs) possess characteristics that make them favourable to ferromagnets (FMs) for spintronic applications: intrinsically, AFM dynamics are much faster compared to FM, AFMs are insensitive to external fields due to their zero net magnetization and produce no stray fields. However, FMs can be manipulated more efficiently. Thus combining AFMs and FMs into hybrid devices to exploit the manipulability of FMs together with the stability of AFMs is a desirable goal. Today, such hybrid devices are widely used, with AFMs having a passive role.

My research is directed to investigate whether AFMs can also be used as active parts in hybrid devices, providing an anisotropy axis for the FM. For this, I plan to investigate magnetoelastic effects of thin film AFM layers on FM substrates. I am interested in both the static stresses exerted by the substrate on the AFM layer and the domain wall dynamics of spin induced currents in AFMs.