Spin-Polarized Antiferromagnetic Spintronics

Abstract

Spin-polarized antiferromagnets (AFMs), including altermagnets, noncollinear AFMs, and two-dimensional layer-polarized AFMs, have emerged as transformative materials for next-generation spintronic and optoelectronic technologies. These systems uniquely combine spin-polarized electronic states with vanishing net magnetization, enabling ultrafast spin dynamics, high-density integration, and robustness against stray magnetic fields. Their unconventional symmetry-breaking mechanisms-governed by crystal symmetry, chiral spin textures, or interlayer potential control-give rise to emergent phenomena previously exclusive to ferromagnets: nonrelativistic spin-momentum locking, spontaneous anomalous transport phenomena, gate-tunable magneto-optical responses, and nonrelativistic spin-polarized current. This review systematically examines the fundamental principles linking symmetry, band topology, and transport properties across these material classes, synthesizing recent breakthroughs in both theory and experiment. We further identify critical challenges in achieving room-temperature functionality, scalable Neel vector control, and coherent spin-current manipulation, while outlining pathways to harness these materials for ultra-low-power memory, spin-logic architectures, and quantum information technologies.

References in corpus (42)

• Spin Transfer Torques
• First Principles Calculation of Anomalous Hall Conductivity in Ferromagnetic bcc Fe
• Berry phase effect in anomalous thermoelectric transport
• Topological Weyl semimetals in the chiral antiferromagnetic materials Mn3Ge and Mn3Sn
• Non-collinear Antiferromagnets and the Anomalous Hall Effect
• Atomically Thin CrCl3: An in-Plane Layered Antiferromagnetic Insulator
• Layer Hall effect in a 2D topological Axion antiferromagnet
• Quantum metric nonlinear Hall effect in a topological antiferromagnetic heterostructure
• Spin chirality on a two-dimensional frustrated lattice
• Electric control of Dirac quasiparticles by spin-orbit torque in an antiferromagnet
• Nonmagnetic Ground State in RuO${}_2$ Revealed by Muon Spin Rotation
• Gate-controllable magneto-optic Kerr effect in layered collinear antiferromagnets
• Perovskite as a spin current generator
• Real-Space and Reciprocal-Space Berry Phases in the Hall Effect of Mn${}_{1-\mathrm{x}}$Fe${}_{\mathrm{x}}$Si
• Dimensional Crossover Induced Topological Hall Effect in a Magnetic Topological Insulator
• Tunneling Magnetoresistance in Noncollinear Antiferromagnetic Tunnel Junctions
• Anomalous Hall effect in $\kappa$-type organic antiferromagnets
• Spin-order dependent anomalous Hall effect and magneto-optical effect in noncollinear antiferromagnets Mn${}_{3}X$N ($X$ = Ga, Zn, Ag, and Ni)
• Anomalous Hall Conductivity of a Non-Collinear Magnetic Antiperovskite
• Noncollinear Spintronics and Electric-Field Control: A Review
• Integration of the Noncollinear Antiferromagnetic Metal Mn3Sn onto Ferroelectric Oxides for Electric-Field Control
• Stacking-dependent ferroicity of reversed bilayer: altermagnetism or ferroelectricity
• Switchable anomalous Hall effects in polar-stacked 2D antiferromagnet MnBi2Te4
• Comparing the anomalous Hall effect and the magneto-optical Kerr effect through antiferromagnetic phase transitions in Mn${}_3$Sn
• Prototypical topological orbital ferromagnet $\gamma$-FeMn
• Giant Piezospintronic Effect in a Noncollinear Antiferromagnetic Metal
• Anomalous Hall effect in antiferromagnetic perovskites
• Switching of a large anomalous Hall effect between metamagnetic phases of a non-collinear antiferromagnet
• Interplay between altermagnetism and nonsymmorphic symmetries generating large anomalous Hall conductivity by semi-Dirac points induced anticrossings
• Anomalous Hall effect in non-collinear antiferromagnetic antiperovskite Mn${}_3$Ni${}_{1-x}$Cu${}_x$N
• Magneto-optical Kerr effect in ferroelectric antiferromagnetic two-dimensional heterostructures
• Spin-Orientation Dependent Topological States in Two-Dimensional Antiferromagnetic NiTl${}_2$S${}_4$ Monolayers
• Strain-induced valley polarization, topological states, and piezomagnetism in two-dimensional altermagnetic V${}_2$Te${}_2$O, V${}_2$STeO, V${}_2$SSeO, and V${}_2$S${}_2$O
• Pressure tuning of the anomalous Hall effect in the chiral antiferromagnet Mn3Ge
• Magneto-optic and transverse transport properties of non-collinear antiferromagnets
• Spin-Orbit Torque Switching of Noncollinear Antiferromagnetic Antiperovskite Manganese Nitride Mn${}_3$GaN
• Recent progress in antiferromagnetic dynamics
• Layer Control of Magneto-Optical Effects and Their Quantization in Spin-Valley Splitting Antiferromagnets
• Origin of Anomalous Hall effect in Cr-doped RuO${}_2$
• Activating magnetoelectric optical properties by twisting antiferromagnetic bilayers
• Electrical-controllable antiferromagnet-based tunnel junction
• Second-order topological magneto-optical effects in noncoplanar antiferromagnets