Néel Spin Currents in Antiferromagnets

Abstract

Ferromagnets are known to support spin-polarized currents that control various spin-dependent transport phenomena useful for spintronics. On the contrary, fully compensated antiferromagnets are expected to support only globally spin-neutral currents. Here, we demonstrate that these globally spin-neutral currents can represent the Néel spin currents, i.e. staggered spin currents flowing through different magnetic sublattices. The Néel spin currents emerge in antiferromagnets with strong intra-sublattice coupling (hopping) and drive the spin-dependent transport phenomena such as tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) and spin-transfer torque (STT) in antiferromagnetic tunnel junctions (AFMTJs). Using RuO${}_2$ and Fe${}_4$GeTe${}_2$ as representative antiferromagnets, we predict that the Néel spin currents with a strong staggered spin-polarization produce a sizable field-like STT capable of the deterministic switching of the Néel vector in the associated AFMTJs. Our work uncovers the previously unexplored potential of fully compensated antiferromagnets and paves a new route to realize the efficient writing and reading of information for antiferromagnetic spintronics.

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• Antiferromagnetic Tunnel Junctions for Spintronics
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• Spin-Polarized Antiferromagnetic Spintronics
• Altermagnetic surface states: towards the observation and utilization of altermagnetism in thin films, interfaces and topological materials
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• Group Theory on Quasisymmetry and Protected Near Degeneracy
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• First-principles study on tunnel magnetoresistance effect with Cr-doped RuO${}_2$ electrode
• Ferroelectric Antiferromagnetic Lifting of Spin-Valley Degeneracy
• Observation of spin splitting in the surface electronic structure of antiferromagnet NdBi
• Exploration of Altermagnetism in $\mathrm{Ru}{\mathrm{O}}_2$
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• Approximate half-integer quantization in anomalous planar transport in $d$-wave altermagnets
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• Staggered Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya and canting angle in centrosymmetric altermagnetic and ferromagnetic phases: influence on the anomalous Hall effect and Weyl points
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• Giant Response and Harmonic Generation in Néel-Torque Antiferromagnetic Resonance
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• Sub-spin-flop switching of a fully compensated antiferromagnet by magnetic field