Texture-induced spin-orbit coupling and Skyrmion-electron bound states in a Néel antiferromagnet

Abstract

We derive effective-mass electron Hamiltonian for a Néel antiferromagnet in the presence of a smooth texture of the staggered magnetization. For certain locations of electron band extrema, the texture produces a peculiar and anomalously strong spin-orbit coupling of the scale $\hslash v/L$, with $v$ the Fermi velocity and $L$ the characteristic length scale of the texture. For a Skyrmion texture, this coupling generates electron bound states, whose energy scale is given by the gap $\Delta$ in the electron spectrum. With dopant carriers, such bound states turn the Skyrmion into a charged particle, that can be manipulated by electric field.

Contribution to the collection in honor of Emmanuel I. Rashba, on his 95th birthday

References in corpus (8)

• Microscopic approach to current-driven domain wall dynamics
• Spin correlations in the electron-doped high-transition-temperature superconductor Nd{2-x}Ce{x}CuO{4+/-delta}
• Spintronics, from giant magnetoresistance to magnetic skyrmions and topological insulators
• Coexistence of Antiferromagnetism and Superconductivity in Electron-doped High-Tc Superconductors
• Spin eigen-excitations of an antiferromagnetic skyrmion
• Kramers degeneracy in a magnetic field and Zeeman spin-orbit coupling in antiferromagnetic conductors
• Kramers degeneracy in a magnetic field and Zeeman spin-orbit coupling in antiferromagnets
• Topological Spin Texture Created by Zhang--Rice Singlets in Cuprate Superconductors

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Unraveling spin texture and spin-orbit coupling contributions in spin triplet superconductivity
• Electron states, bound to a texture in a Néel antiferromagnet
• Fermion-Vortex Interactions in Axion Electrodynamics