Voltage control of magnon spin currents in antiferromagnetic Cr2O3

Abstract

Voltage-controlled spintronic devices utilizing the spin degree of freedom are desirable for future applications, and may allow energy-efficient information processing. Pure spin current can be created by thermal excitations in magnetic systems via the spin Seebeck effect (SSE). However, controlling such spin currents, only by electrical means, has been a fundamental challenge. Here, we investigate voltage control of the SSE in the antiferromagnetic insulator Cr2O3. We demonstrate that the SSE response generated in this material can be effectively controlled by applying a bias voltage, owing to the sensitivity of the SSE to the orientation of the magnetic sublattices as well as the existence of magnetoelectric couplings in Cr2O3. Our experimental results are explained using a model based on the magnetoelectric effect in Cr2O3.

Main manuscript (12 pages, 4 figures) combined with supplemental materials (9 pages, 4 figures) for a total of 21 pages

References in corpus (8)

• Spin Seebeck insulator
• Theory of magnon-driven spin Seebeck effect
• Recent progress in voltage control of magnetism: Materials, mechanisms, and performance
• Spin pumping and spin-transfer torques in antiferromagnets
• Purely Antiferromagnetic Magnetoelectric Random Access Memory
• Electric-field control of spin waves at room temperature in multiferroic BiFeO3
• Magnetism of chromia
• Full magnetoelectric response of Cr2O3 from first principles

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Electrical control of magnetism by electric field and current-induced torques
• Nonvolatile Electric Field Control of Thermal Magnons in the Absence of an Applied Magnetic Field
• Spin Seebeck Effect: Sensitive Probe for Elementary Excitation, Spin Correlation, Transport, Magnetic Order, and Domains in Solids
• Electric Field Switching of Magnon Spin Current in a Compensated Ferrimagnet
• Surface-symmetry-driven Dzyaloshinskii--Moriya interaction and canted ferrimagnetism in collinear magnetoelectric antiferromagnet Cr${}_2$O${}_3$
• Nonvolatile Magnonics in Bilayer Magnetic Insulators
• Thermal spin current generation in the multifunctional ferrimagnet Ga${}_{0.6}$Fe${}_{1.4}$O${}_3$
• Linear magnetoelectricity in the Zintl phase pnictides (Ba, Ca, Sr)${\mathrm{Mn}}_2{(\mathrm{P},\mathrm{As},\mathrm{Sb})}_2$ from first principles calculations