journal article·2019-12Open access

Spin transport in antiferromagnetic insulators: progress and challenges

Dazhi Hou, Zhiyong Qiu, Eiji Saitoh

NPG Asia Materials· Volume 11· Issue 1

Abstract

Abstract Spin transport is a key process in the operation of spin-based devices that has been the focus of spintronics research for the last two decades. Conductive materials, such as semiconductors and metals, in which the spin transport relies on electron diffusion, have been employed as the channels for spin transport in most studies. Due to the absence of conduction electrons, the potential to be a spin channel has long been neglected for insulators. However, since the demonstration of spin transmission through a ferromagnetic insulator, it was realized that insulators with magnetic ordering can also serve as channels for spin transport. Here, the recent progress of spin transport in antiferromagnetic insulators is briefly described with an introduction to the experimental techniques. The observations regarding the temperature dependence of spin transmission, spin current switching and the negative spin Hall magnetoresistance are discussed. We also include the challenges for developing the functionality of antiferromagnetic insulators as well as the unresolved problems from the experimental observations.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Magnetic properties of thin films · Quantum and electron transport phenomena · Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

References (41)

Show source-provided references
1. Maekawa, S. Concept in Spin Electronics (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006).10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198568216.001.0001 ↗
2. Datta, S. & Das, B. Electronic analog of the electro-optic modulator. Appl. Phys. Lett. 56, 665–667 (1990).10.1063/1.102730 ↗
3. Zˇuti´c, I. & Das Sarma, S. Spintronics: fundamentals and applications. Rev. Mod. Phys. 76, 323–410 (2004).10.1103/RevModPhys.76.323 ↗
4. Johnson, M. & Silsbee, R. H. Interfacial charge-spin coupling: injection and detection of spin magnetization in metals. Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 1790–1793 (1985).10.1103/PhysRevLett.55.1790 ↗
5. Johnson, M. & Silsbee, R. H. Thermodynamic analysis of interfacial transport and of the thermomagnetoelectric system. Phys. Rev. B 35, 4959–4972 (1987).10.1103/PhysRevB.35.4959 ↗
6. Kajiwara, Y. et al. Transmission of electrical signals by spin-wave interconversion in a magnetic insulator. Nature 464, 262 (2010).10.1038/nature08876 ↗
7. Wang, H., Du, C., Hammel, P. C. & Yang, F. Antiferromagnonic spin transport from Y3Fe5O12 into NiO. Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 97202 (2014).10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.097202 ↗
8. Hahn, C. et al. Conduction of spin currents through insulating antiferromagnetic oxides. EPL 108, 57005 (2014).10.1209/0295-5075/108/57005 ↗
9. Moriyama, T. et al. Anti-damping spin transfer torque through epitaxial nickel oxide. Appl. Phys. Lett. 106, 162406 (2015).10.1063/1.4918990 ↗
10. Saitoh, E., Ueda, M., Miyajima, H. & Tatara, G. Conversion of spin current into charge current at room temperature: inverse spin-Hall effect. Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 182509 (2006).10.1063/1.2199473 ↗
11. Uchida, K. et al. Spin seebeck insulator. Nat. Mater. 9, 894–897 (2010).10.1038/nmat2856 ↗
12. Hirsch, J. E. Spin hall effect. Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 1834–1837 (1999).10.1103/PhysRevLett.83.1834 ↗
13. Lin, W., Chen, K., Zhang, S. & Chien, C. L. Enhancement of thermally injected spin current through an antiferromagnetic insulator. Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 186601 (2016).10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.186601 ↗
14. Frangou, L. et al. Enhanced spin pumping efficiency in antiferromagnetic irmn thin films around the magnetic phase transition. Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 077203 (2016).10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.077203 ↗
15. Qiu, Z. et al. Spin-current probe for phase transition in an insulator. Nat. Commun. 7, 12670 (2016).
16. Takei, S., Moriyama, T., Ono, T. & Tserkovnyak, Y. Antiferromagnet-mediated spin transfer between a metal and a ferromagnet. Phys. Rev. B 92, 20409 (2015).10.1103/PhysRevB.92.020409 ↗
17. Khymyn, R., Lisenkov, I., Tiberkevich, V. S., Slavin, A. N. & Ivanov, B. A. Transformation of spin current by antiferromagnetic insulators. Phys. Rev. B 93, 224421 (2016).10.1103/PhysRevB.93.224421 ↗
18. Hahn, C. et al. Detection of microwave spin pumping using the inverse spin hall effect. Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 217204 (2013).10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.217204 ↗
19. Wei, D., Obstbaum, M., Ribow, M., Back, C. H. & Woltersdorf, G. Spin Hall voltages from a.c. and d.c. spin currents. Nat. Commun. 5, 3768 (2014).10.1038/ncomms4768 ↗
20. Qiu, Z. et al. Spin colossal magnetoresistance in an antiferromagnetic insulator. Nat. Mater. 17, 577–580 (2018).10.1038/s41563-018-0087-4 ↗
21. Uchida, K. et al. Longitudinal spin Seebeck effect: from fundamentals to applications. J. Phys. Condens. Matter 26, 343202 (2014).10.1088/0953-8984/26/34/343202 ↗
22. Hou, D. et al. Observation of temperature-gradient-induced magnetization. Nat. Commun. 7, 12265 (2016).10.1038/ncomms12265 ↗
23. Wang, H. et al. Antiferromagnetic anisotropy determination by spin Hall magnetoresistance. J. Appl. Phys. 122, 83907 (2017).10.1063/1.4986372 ↗
24. Lebrun, R. et al. Tunable long-distance spin transport in a crystalline antiferromagnetic iron oxide. Nature 561, 222–225 (2018).10.1038/s41586-018-0490-7 ↗
25. Shang, T. et al. Effect of nio inserted layer on spin-hall magnetoresistance in pt/nio/yig heterostructures. Appl. Phys. Lett. 109, 032410 (2016).
26. Nakayama, H. et al. Spin hall magnetoresistance induced by a nonequilibrium proximity effect. Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 206601 (2013).10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.206601 ↗
27. Chen, Y.-T. et al. Theory of spin hall magnetoresistance. Phys. Rev. B 87, 144411 (2013).10.1103/PhysRevB.87.144411 ↗
28. Lin, W. & Chien, C. L. Electrical detection of spin backflow from an antiferromagnetic insulator/y3fe5o12 interface. Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 067202 (2017).10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.067202 ↗
29. Hou, D. et al. Tunable sign change of spin hall magnetoresistance in Pt/NiO/YIG structures. Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 147202 (2017).10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.147202 ↗
30. Koon, N. C. Calculations of exchange bias in thin films with ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic interfaces. Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 4865–4868 (1997).10.1103/PhysRevLett.78.4865 ↗
31. Krug, I. P. et al. Impact of interface orientation on magnetic coupling in highly ordered systems: a case study of the low-indexed fe3o4 /NiO interfaces. Phys. Rev. B 78, 064427 (2008).10.1103/PhysRevB.78.064427 ↗
32. Li, J. et al. Chirality switching and winding or unwinding of the antiferromagnetic nio domain walls in Fe/NiO/Fe/CoO/Ag(001). Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 147207 (2014).10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.147207 ↗
33. Luan, Z. Z. et al. Interfacial coupling and negative spin hall magnetoresistance in pt/nio/yig. Appl. Phys. Lett. 113, 072406 (2018).10.1063/1.5041865 ↗
34. Hoogeboom, G. R., Aqeel, A., Kuschel, T., Palstra, T. T. M. & van Wees, B. J. Neg- ative spin Hall magnetoresistance of Pt on the bulk easy-plane antiferromagnet NiO. Appl. Phys. Lett. 111, 52409 (2017).10.1063/1.4997588 ↗
35. Fischer, J. et al. Spin Hall magnetoresistance in antiferromagnet/heavy-metal heterostructures. Phys. Rev. B 97, 14417 (2018).10.1103/PhysRevB.97.014417 ↗
36. Moriyama, T., Oda, K., Ohkochi, T., Kimata, M. & Ono, T. Spin torque control of antiferro- magnetic moments in NiO. Sci. Rep. 8, 1–6 (2018). 1708.07682.10.1038/s41598-018-32508-w ↗
37. Chen, X. Z. et al. Antidamping-torque-induced switching in biaxial antiferromagnetic insula- tors. Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 207204 (2018).10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.207204 ↗
38. Rezende, S. M., Rodr´ıguez-Su´arez, R. L. & Azevedo, A. Diffusive magnonic spin transport in antiferromagnetic insulators. Phys. Rev. B 93, 054412 (2016).10.1103/PhysRevB.93.054412 ↗
39. Cheng, R., Xiao, D. & Brataas, A. Terahertz antiferromagnetic spin hall nano-oscillator. Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 207603 (2016).10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.207603 ↗
40. Sulymenko, O. R. et al. Terahertz-frequency spin hall auto-oscillator based on a canted anti- ferromagnet. Phys. Rev. Appl. 8, 064007 (2017).10.1103/PhysRevApplied.8.064007 ↗
41. Sulymenko, O. R., Prokopenko, O. V., Tyberkevych, V. S. & Slavin, A. N. Terahertz-frequency signal source based on an antiferromagnetic tunnel junction. IEEE Magn. Lett. 9, 1–5 (2018).10.1109/LMAG.2018.2852291 ↗