  In the development of spin-based electronic devices, a particular challenge
is the manipulation of the magnetic state with high speed and low power
consumption. Although research has focused on the current-induced spin-orbit
torque based on strong spin-orbit coupling, the charge-based and the
torque-driven devices have fundamental limitations: Joule heating, phase
mismatching and overshooting. In this work, we investigate numerically and
theoretically alternative switching scenario of antiferromagnetic insulator in
one-dimensional confined nanowire sandwiched with two electrodes. As the
electric field could break inversion symmetry and induce Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya
interaction and pseudo-dipole anisotropy, the resulting spiral texture takes
symmetric or antisymmetric configuration due to additional coupling with the
crystalline anisotropy. Therefore, by competing two spiral states, we show that
the magnetization reversal of antiferromagnets is realized, which is valid in
ferromagnetic counterpart. Our finding provides promising opportunities to
realize the rapid and energy-efficient electrical manipulation of magnetization
for future spin-based electronic devices.
