Abstract:

Electric currents carrying a net spin polarization are widely used in spintronics, whereas globally spin-neutral currents are expected to play no role in spin-dependent phenomena. Antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials usually support only spin-neutral currents, and hence are largely restricted in realistic spintronic applications, despite being robust against magnetic perturbations, not producing stray fields, and exhibiting ultrafast spin dynamics. Here we show, in contrast to this common expectation, spin-neutral currents in antiferromagnets can drive novel spin-dependent transport phenomena in antiferromagnetic tunnel junctions (AFMTJs), such as a tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) and a tunneling anomalous Hall effect (TAHE) promising for accurate read-out, and a spin-transfer-torque (STT) crucial for efficient write-in. These phenomena are due to that the globally spin-neutral currents in antiferromagnets can host Néel spin currents, i.e. staggered spin currents flowing through different magnetic sublattices. Our works uncover the previously unexplored potentials of antiferromagnets and pave a new route to realize the efficient writing and reading of information for antiferromagnetic spintronics.

References:

[1] Ding-Fu Shao, et al., Spin-neutral currents for spintronics, Nature Communications 12, 7061 (2021).

[2] Ding-Fu Shao, et al., Spin-neutral tunneling anomalous Hall effect, Phys. Rev. B 106, L180404 (2022).

[3] Ding-Fu Shao, et al., Néel Spin Currents in Antiferromagnets, arXiv:2212.02367 (2022).

Bio:

邵定夫，研究員，博士生導(dǎo)師。2008年本科畢業(yè)于中國礦業(yè)大學(xué)，2013年博士畢業(yè)于中國科學(xué)院合肥物質(zhì)科學(xué)研究院固體物理研究所，獲中國科學(xué)院大學(xué)博士學(xué)位。2013年至2016年在中國科學(xué)院合肥物質(zhì)科學(xué)研究院固體物理研究所擔(dān)任助理研究員。2016年至2021年在美國內(nèi)布拉斯加大學(xué)林肯分校訪問研究，任博士后研究員、高級研究員。2021年獲國家高層次人才計(jì)劃資助。2021年12月全職回國，加入中國科學(xué)院合肥物質(zhì)科學(xué)研究院固體物理研究所。邵定夫研究員長期從事量子材料與器件的理論研究，近期研究興趣包括反鐵磁電子學(xué)、二維鐵電材料的自旋-軌道電子學(xué)等。目前發(fā)表學(xué)術(shù)論文60余篇，獲SCI引用2000余次，其中以第一作者或通訊作者身份在Physical Review Letters、Nature Communications、Science Advances等期刊發(fā)表論文30余篇。