Electric-field control of magnon spin current in an antiferromagnetic insulator

ORAL

Abstract

A fundamental challenge in the development of spintronics is the effective control of spin currents by electrical means. This is because the spin degree of freedom is often decoupled from external electric fields, making its control difficult. Over the last few years, the spin Seebeck effect has shown its versatility in generating pure spin currents in a diverse class of magnetic systems. Here we first show how a magnon spin current can be produced in an antiferromagnetic insulator by means of the spin Seebeck effect. The polarity of the spin current is determined by the orientation of the magnetic sublattice in this antiferromagnet. Owning to the response of the magnetic ions to an external electric field, the anisotropy energy of this material may be effectively tuned. As a result, we show that the spin-flop transition in this material can be switched on or off by varying only an electrical voltage. Furthermore, we demonstrate how thermally generated spin currents in this antiferromagnet can be effectively controlled by sweeping the control voltage.

*Supported by the US DOE, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. The use of facilities at the CNM was supported by the DOE, Basic Energy Sciences under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

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Presenters

  • Changjiang Liu

    • Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory
    • Argonne National Laboratory
    • Argonne Natl Lab

Authors

  • Changjiang Liu

    • Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory
    • Argonne National Laboratory
    • Argonne Natl Lab

  • Yongming Luo

    • Argonne National Laboratory

  • Deshun Hong

    • Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory
    • Argonne National Laboratory
    • Argonne Natl Lab

  • Shulei Zhang

    • Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory
    • Argonne National Laboratory
    • Materials Science Division, Argonne National Lab
    • Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University

  • john pearson

    • Argonne National Lab
    • Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory
    • Argonne National Laboratory
    • Materials Science Division, Argonne Natl Lab
    • Argonne Natl Lab

  • Brandon Fisher

    • Argonne National Laboratory

  • Axel Hoffmann

    • University of Illinois
    • Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
    • Argonne National Laboratory
    • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
    • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    • Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    • Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory
    • Argonne Natl Lab

  • Anand Bhattacharya

    • Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory
    • Argonne National Laboratory
    • Argonne Natl Lab